Days Away

A poem by Bob Bradley

I.

The ocean lies

broken

On the beach

and the vicious

Granular facts

Undo me.

Zen ghosts

Call forth the cost

eternal: Their pin-

prick mouths

suckling

The life back

Into the one

Hunger.

Day one away.

Hunger lies

Beyond and draws

me forth. Dying by

appetite,

The waves all

Broken down.

I am nothing

But mouth.

Bob Bradley was born in Mansfield, Ohio, May 31, 1959, and grew up in North Carolina and Georgia. He was educated at the University of Georgia, Athens, where he studied with Coleman Barks at the University of Virginia. He also studied with Charles Wright and Gregory Orr. He currently pursues doctoral studies at Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, Gettysburg Review, Southern Poetry Review, Seneca Review, Poetry East, Antioch Review, Plainsong, Iris, and Painted Bride Quarterly, among others. Please visit Bob's website at: www.bobbradley.com Bob can be reached via email at: artistultra@comcast.net.

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