The tower of quarters intact on a loved one’s stair
No one to cut your heart out in the basement
Anonymous suburbia somehow feeling
An unbroken parade of noiseless fire trucks
A warm burger during a bomb scare
Gift cards gifted on time
People forgiving strangers over the phone
The frameable small waves on the Neva river
Listening to Tchaikovsky on Tchaikovsky Street
A TV stakeout in the company of both parents
An amendment to a Rorschach monster
An obscure intelligence finding a home
A warm nearby forest never explored until today
A crutch given away
The car starting
A car pulling out of the driveway
narrowly avoiding the priceless flowers
The universal leash for every dog out there
The Pale Horse waving its hoof at the happy roller skater
without a plan to trample her
The lack of boulders on the beautiful lawn
The boulders arranged in personally meaningful patterns
Yellow flowers coming out
A life-affirming lecture by Winnie the Pooh
The one who matters the most recognizing your head is not filled with woodchips
The one who matters the most not watching the clock
A favorite soccer team doing pretty well
The incognito sports star on a chair lift
One day this year we don’t hear of stars burning out
The dog rescuing his master from the Grand Canyon
The ATVs gliding noiselessly through a picturesque forest
The departure of the Id Iago
The business card of a standoffish pioneer

Photo: Anton Yakovlev

Order Anton Yakovlev’s latest chapbook Chronos Dines Alone

Anton Yakovlev’s latest chapbook Chronos Dines Alone, winner of the 2018 James Tate Poetry Prize, is available for pre-order. He is the author of Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017) and two prior chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Hopkins Review, Measure, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and elsewhere.