Mark Smith-Soto

Accent

Fifty years ago my older brother brought home / the first tape recorder I’d ever seen, a little box / that pulled my voice out of the air and spun it back / transformed, whiny, stuffed-nose, singsong.

Selected Poems

— from “Wanting” | Wanting’s the thing, not the thing itself. / The thing itself no longer calls to me

Twilight Meditation Without Dog

Late-afternoon light floods the darkening sunroom. / Looking out the window, not sad, not happy, I / and the ghost of my old dog breathe in, breathe out

Getting Ready

You know where you start, but you don’t know where / you’ll end up, so never begin a trip on an empty stomach, / my uncle Enrique said, pulling into the brand-new / Wendy’s, the first in Costa Rica.

Incontinence

The stain ran a trail down his pleated / Cords, but I didn’t quite register the fact, / And only later realized that it meant / He’d pissed himself.

New Year

Icy rain and wind outside; inside, my back’s / To the bedraggled human shape asprawl / On the comfy corner sofa at the Starbucks

Calligraphy

Slide

Do I Stink

Time Out