the mass in the pear light gloops through
the portico and oviposits kids in the pews
they combat the taupe and sage matte noise-suck climate
far back i’m reading the micro-climates the little heads are swaying
in the streaming gossip and turn toward the peppy slideshow
and turn toward the face head
and the unguarded speech of the blind heads sways me
the proto-language of emoto-tropic bulbs
it works on me like the high-toned arches
it works on me like the baroque absence of birds
it works on me like their faith in a slideshow
it works on me like ordination goddamn it

***

Benjamin Gantcher’s first book of poems, Snow Farmer (CW Books, 2017), was a finalist in several book contests. His work appears in many journals, including Tin House, Guernica and The Brooklyn Rail, and he was Poet of the Week at Brooklyn Poets. His chapbook Strings of Math and Custom was published by Beard of Bees Press, and his first poetry manuscript, If a Lettuce, earned finalist honors in the National Poetry Series and Bright Hill Press contests. A recipient of a LABA fellowship as well as residencies from the UCross Foundation and the Omi International Arts Center, Gantcher is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a former poetry editor of failbetter. He teaches English in Manhattan and lives in Brooklyn with his family.