Two Poems by
Luke Schlueter
Predicting the Future
Disquiet – it screams disquiet
But I can’t get my breviary to agree
What do they call the fish scale pattern
On pressed metal – that is the sky
The heap of dead branches the dog
Circles in his sleep – that is the future
An alarm goes off in his head –
But that is only Saint John in ecstasy again
Today
Today I will smoke a cigarette
Without shame out in the cold
Where the smoke will remind me of
Seventies AM radio
Jackson C. Frank, Johnny Cash,
Glenn Campbell or some such thing
Of Dylan hunched
Against the cold, fingers wrapped
Around a Camel outside the place
Where life is constantly moving in
And moving on
I’ll think of that while smoking
Out in the cold without shame
On this late December day
Luke Schlueter teaches writing, literature, and the humanities at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. His work is influenced by a broad range writers who explore in prose and poetry the complex business of being human. When not teaching and writing he discovers an endless source of delight in his wife, children, family, and friends.