Tim Martin

Perhaps These Notions

the sky is falling
   well, maybe not
but everything looks
   underwater
and these are my
   good shoes
i need time
   to think
the phone keeps
   ringing & i know
it's about bills
   or some big mistake
on the government forms
   how many
ways can you define
   need
anyway?
   so, i'm in the dictionary
scrawling margins with questions
   they say there
is a time
   in everyone
's life
   when the question starts
being as important
   as the answer
it seems false
   that prayer
should have gone
   this far
unanswered
   i'm terrified
of predictions
   and riddles
that end
   with my
leaving
   unsolved
perhaps, these notions
   are unjustified
but
   they make the skin
jitter
   in time
with the lightening
   and
my blood
   is full
of house sparrows
   all darting
on cue
   in the same
direction




How Public Like A Frog


it comes down to this
i make lists to convince myself
it's time to buy land
i am not a first day fraud
i don't need a morning smoke
debt was worth it
in my renegotiated role of education
i should relocate
since saints often get cancer
and need to be fed ice chips
in this Andrew Wyeth field
i stare at silhouettes of crows
homesick with these muted colors
across acres of farmland




Candy from Strangers

too early
for murder
when the van

picks you up
the very air
accumulates

morning energy
in the alarm
clock ring

free from
the moorings
the villainy

the village
the weird night
time occurrences

back to the script
polka-dotted
with Maxwell

House stains
& breakfast meat
grease

these things
don't sit well
with me at thirty

like tequila
and garden pizza
have ecstatic

effects i hear
as the happy
man dances

with his hammock
before the rooftops
at the party

he throws
for the voice
of the people






Tim Martin is a writer from Bryn Mawr, PA. His plays Once Upon A River, and Tales From Turtle Island have been produced by the Hedgerow Theatre and One's Self I Sing was recently given a reading. His poetry has been seen in In Words, Autumn Leaves, Orange/Blowmoney 2 and other small magazines. He is the founder of King of Mice Press and a member of the Curio Theatre Company and the Big Mind Collective.




Tim Martin Steven Dalachinsky Jason Heroux Colin Van Der Woude Anders