Recommended Reading: Punks by John Keene

A finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, Punks: New and Selected Poems by John Keene is published by The Song Cave. The editors are Ben Estes and Alan Felsenthal and the agent is Jonah Straus. The winner will be announced on May 11. Here is a poem from this collection:

Ten Things I Do Every Day

Floss my throat
		wash my feet then glower
kiss Curtis at 7:30
		to shake him
feed Kitty
	philosophical tenders
stroll the valley
		of dearth to Journal Square
keep the faith like a Benedictine
			under the Hudson

Work like a yo-yo
		nap like bear
address endless emails
		to forgotten writers
jack the meter
	to stand tall
drink lust as if
		it were spring water
walk through the Mews
	when the coast is near
leave my friends and shadows
		generous margins for error