by Glen Armstrong

1.
You test the waters and their emergency
readiness with a toe,

the Rothkos and their red
with an eye and open heart.

I accept the blur-
ring of work and worker, art and artist,
love and lover.

2.
The hand crafts a glove, and the mind
imagines itself

as a floating brain above a marionette.
I accept my elbow

is nothing more than a hinge.
My arm was more beautiful before

it was measured.

---

Glen Armstrong (he/him) holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters. His poems have appeared in Conduit, Poetry Northwest, and Another Chicago Magazine.