–Rothko’s Phalanx of the Mind

Everything is a weapon

the glass pane poised

in the geometry

of its shanks

even the shadows

when imposed

by the brain’s

peach-pit wrinkles

onto what

could be

floor             ceiling             sky

but all

with the same

sharp intent

thin             impaled           desire

like an acupuncturist’s needle

a parabola of musings above

a flaccid tongue

and its balmy shadow below

massaging the pane to shatter

into the not-flesh of us all

Adam Vines teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and edits Birmingham Poetry Review. He is the author of two collections of poetry, The Coal Life (University of Arkansas Press, 2012) and Out of Speech (LSU Press, 2018) and is coauthor of two collections, According to Discretion (Unicorn Press, 2015) and Day Kink (Unicorn Press, 2018). His recent poems have appeared in The Hopkins Review, Five Points, Green Mountains Review, The Greensboro Review, and Tupelo Quarterly.