2018 / poetry / author

KEVIN CASEY

 

NO NEED
…

A pothos left for dead by some neighbor
in its half-shell of plastic, adorning
the corner of our tenement’s dumpster--

leggy and forlorn, though its waxy leaves
rose in a heap, shoulder upon shoulder,
mounting into a fountain of jade.

There’s no need for a houseplant, as these neighbors
would attest, no need to decorate
a narrow kitchen with this living thing,

a daub of color on a window sill
against the endless recitation
of fire escape and brick beyond,

and no need to wait until the shadows grew
to a dusk that swept away what little shame
a city might nurture--one man’s trash

is another’s treasure--but still I delayed
before hurrying it away, an act
that seemed more akin to larceny than grace.

 
 

…

KEVIN CASEY is the author of Ways to Make a Halo (Aldrich Press, 2018) and American Lotus, winner of the 2017 Kithara Prize (Glass Lyre Press, 2018). And Waking... was published by Bottom Dog Press in 2016. His poems have appeared in Rust+Moth, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Connotation Press, Pretty Owl Poetry, and Ted Kooser's syndicated column ‘American Life in Poetry.’

WHERE TO FIND KEVIN CASEY: WEBSITE

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