Melissa Tuckey

ROCK CREEK PARK RUNNER The police ask if she is being chased “Yes” she says, “I am being chased, if I fall asleep I will be penetrated by great sadness.”         NOCTURNE So early now the sun unties a knot, sycamore white- boned and empty above the noise of the street singing Red ants beneath the cypress tree daffodil leaning to graves Plato said love was a bicycle with one flat tire but Archimedes said get the biggest damn truck you can find and load it with manure Homer in twilight watching the apple tree disrobe Hornets like angels    blowing trumpets into ears of gold       - - - - - -

Melissa Tuckey is author of Rope as Witness (Pudding House 2007, chapbook).  Her poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Hayden's Ferry Review, Poet Lore, Verse Daily and other places.  She's a co-founder of Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, DC, currently on leave for a fellowship at Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.