#wally pipp

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Two Poems by Stephen Klepetar

Li Bo and the Moon of Expectation

Tonight we’re in a field, with the moon rising, shedding its ice light where wildflowers sleep. Meadow grasses tickle our ankles

as we wander toward the tree line. Li Bo points to the sky. “That’s the Moon of Expectation,” he tells me. “See how her shadow eyes open,

how her mouth breathes a hopeful song, a prayer? It seems to me her face blurs with tears, proud as if her fine sons had left on a voyage, sailing their shining

ship around the horn of the world.” Crickets hail us in soft light. We expect nothing but the taste of wine. We drink deep, toasting the hope in her ghostly face.

Li Bo Tears Up His Contract

and lets the bits fall in a soft avalanche on his kitchen floor. He’s a holdout.

I make coffee, sit him down, push over the sugar bowl. He says “I’ll walk

the river, following mallards as they swim toward the dam. I’ll make

my home in mud.” I offer toast and cherry jam. “I’ll be a bird,” he says,

“and drill clean holes into the trunks of rotting trees.” He eats thoughtfully

at first, then with great pleasure at tartness and sweet. Carefully we run

the numbers, his demands against risk and time lost, the chance that some younger

voice might take his place on the team. “Remember Wally Pipp,”* I warn.

Later I find him on the floor, folding shredded papers into perfect little squares,

as if this act of tidying could  bring his body into line with old rage and newfound appetite.

Steve Klepetar's work has appeared widely and has received several nominations for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Recent collections include My Son Writes a Report on the Warsaw Ghetto and Return of the Bride of Frankenstein.