Robert Bohm

1958


He was punctual about it. Always. Just like
Mrs. Rudnitsky in the next apartment
on the toilet at 4 a.m. farting up a storm. There were other

parallels too -- for instance, the fruit seller’s
mid-morning nap behind crates piled crookedly
above the silverfish’s dwelling near the floor-drain grate

or the one p.m. liaisons that for years
Erica had with Mr. Feldman, even after
the miscarriages multiplied and her breasts sagged

or the way thick-fingered men pushed open
the elevator factory gates six days a week
at five p.m., then drank for hours

or how, every night as mama talked in her sleep,
the river dragged debris through her body --
like such events, with the same exactitude of timing,

Hassan prayed five times a day
on a rug that pointed toward
wherever Yonkers wasn’t.

Robert Bohm is a poet and culture writer. He was born in Queens, New York. His 2007 Uz Um War Moan Ode is available from Pudding House Press. Other credits include two other books, a chapbook and work published in a variety of print and online publications. More information on Bohm's work can be found at his blog, Lethal Injections for the Conditioned Mind, and his website, Unburials: The Writer as Graverobber. Click here for a selection of online publications from the last few years.