Glen Armstrong - Spoon Bender

Spoon Bender

But I was left alone.
Like a bent spoon.
Or a cowboy.
Boot that needs reheeling.
I walked around for a while feeling.
That I’d put too much faith.
In Uri Geller and symmetry.
My new and expanding faithlessness.
Would take me far.
I embraced that national restlessness.

That so many young men before me had.
I drove my rental car.
To Redondo California.
But I remained alone like a show dog.
Only bred when some shadowy.
Master’s needs took precedent. 
Or a discredited theory.
I would have thrown the broken boot.
Into the ocean if there had ever.
Been a broken boot to throw.



Glen Armstrong holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters and has three recent chapbooks: Set List (Bitchin Kitsch,) In Stone and The Most Awkward Silence of All (both Cruel Garters Press.) His work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Conduit and Cloudbank.

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