Adam Patric Miller: Two Poems

Gingko

you should open up

it doesn’t have to be about your
small intestines

or a ventricle

the clouds in your eyes

a freckle shaped
like Australia

light pollution in the night sky
scaring stars from their
lightyears

words you hustle to write
before mapping a route
to the local airport

be more like a cat
spend your lives
freely

grasp the introspection
of razor claws

leap into a photo
of a film of a show of a play

be four steps removed
but so close
you’re whispering words

alert her skin
the super-sensitive nose

that sends you to a washcloth
to wipe away
the cologne of words

so you can open up—

she’ll be at the airport,
standing atop an escalator
wearing a yellow dress
in every life you live

rain soaks the gingko tree
fifteen fan-shaped leaves golden
like the ones she painted
on swirling green walls

you should open up
 
~~~


Entrance to Subway

for bill

there’s a passage written
by a Russian composer
the wind in a graveyard

there’s the sound of Bill Evans
every time I put him on

there’s the sound of a subway
two rats fighting
at the bottom of stairs

there’s the sound of Rothko
painting the subway scene
narrow figures growing more narrow

there’s a train approaching
always a train approaching
lights burning blue and red in the dark

there’s a stairway down
to a club under the street
in a city of the departed

there are more tunes than
you can name but no matter how bright
they’re dark

there’s Bill Evans playing the note
a bassist needs to tune
with other notes so quiet

there are announcers speaking
other languages welcoming and naming
the trio the light long gone

there’s the fact of the sun
almost gone in words
we’re going to see a show

there’s the lateness
will we make the set?
there’s only so many hours left

death comes very early

~~~~

Copyright 2025 Adam Patric Miller

Adam Patric Miller has taught high school for 25 years in three states and currently teaches in St. Louis. He is the author of the book A Greater Monster, a collection of essays selected by Phillip Lopate to win the Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize.