Jerry Gordinier, 26, is a user experience designer living in San Francisco. He has studied English as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has been writing poetry for about ten years now. He has been published in a list of journals including the Michigan State Off-Beat, the University of Michigan Xylem, and the online Rose and Thorn.
“Growing Feathers”
I grew feathers for quills,
rushed below the mantle,
ended a guerilla war in camouflage,
broke inconclusive meter.
I am Aspartame, but sweeter.
I flew to heaven and fell back down,
forgetting the dramamine and the halo.
I grass-‐stained my knees
and sledded into a tree.
Ouch. What more is there to say?
Like Wile E. Coyote and his dissipating clouds,
we can’t fathom the wonder under our feet
at the fall-‐out. The weight of gravity.
Another story for the playbook, another eulogy.
Ghost stories and make-‐believe and longing:
I’ll rise up like a phoenix.
I’ll burn down like a phoenix.
I’ll build with Aether, intellect, ignorance.
I’ll turn all philosophic and phosphorescent and lament,
a clockwork waiting to ring out, struck.
I’ll alarm, depress, reset
get buzzed. Get plucked.
Again the wings, leaden and stunned.
I’ll write with ink heavier than God,
heavier than blood.
Download his collection “Emily” here
