Defiance
At my age I shouldn’t be outside
when it’s 95 degrees,
too dangerous, stay hydrated,
stay indoors. Seems like the perfect time
to get up on the ladder shirtless
at mid-day
finish painting the gutter
and overhang. I enjoy taunting the gods
after all they’ve been taunting me
for 70 years already.
I raise a fist up
to the heavens and scream:
“Here I am you bastards come and get me!”
Michael Estabrook: Coalition of cheetahs, clutch of chickens, colony of bats, caravan of camels, cast of crabs, crash of rhinos, congregation of alligators . . . and what might be the best appellation applied to a gathering of poets? Convocation? Cluster? Chattering? Collection? Clutter? No, no, perhaps cacophony would be the most apt descriptor. Anyway, Michael Estabrook is one of the cacophony, his latest collection of poems being Bouncy House, edited by Larry Fagin (Green Zone Editions, 2016).