The Poet In Love
    Reginald Harris
I

is speechless.

II

writes letters about
letters:

"If you take these clumsy 26,
sail them across the empty page to dance,

each word, each stress and counter-
stroke would bear your name"

-- then slides it under a door
unsigned

and quickly runs away.

III

sings in showers, in the streets,
brings back tunes from the Great American Songbook:

Thou Swell, All the Things
You Are, Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Since I Fell for You.
Whispers This Old Heart of Mine

or I'm a Fool to Love You
to fear-filled passing strangers,

to one-man
standing ovation.



REGINALD HARRIS is Information Technology Training Manager for the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, Maryland. A member of the Cave Canem: African-American Poetry Workshop/Retreat family, his work has appeared in a variety of publications including African-American Review, Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Obsidian II and in the Men on Men 7 and His3 anthologies.
 
 
 
 

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