A Partial List of Michael's Published Work:
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     A number of poems by Michael have also appeared on VerseWrights
Foxtrot

The miles between us are narrow ruled
I can't count the times we've tripped
over those same one syllable words
you the progressive one
me the traditionalist
trying to attain proximity  
without over indulgence
without red flags
without precociousness 
we dance around well enough
without the steps we most admire
too close for comfort
to distant to satisfy


Appeared in WestWard Quarterly - Fall 2011




Coming Out

So prudish,
so fitting.
In their proper place,
miniature nick-knacks
adorning shelves.
Space assigned to them.
So provincial,
standing among their own.
Delighting onlookers;
on command
twirling in whirly -skirts,
till taken down,
played with
and returned.

Their lives
pleated, 
ironed,
washed and hung out
to dry;
have shrunk
and wrinkled
with the passing time
and the shelf
will no longer do.



​Sport Utility Poem 

Let me shove this in your face
guzzle up words in excess
burn high octane adjectives
belch superlatives your way
my verbs are bigger than yours
because that is how I want them
need has nothing to do with it
I could compact or subcompact
but why, when I can take my poem
where I want- through the fucking mud
off the page and around couplets and haikus
into places your creampuff iambic pentameter can’t go
and I’ll leave you in my oxymoronic dust
passing everything on the road 
except a dictionary- cause a guy’s gotta refuel 
and I don’t mind that- economy is not my thing 
there’s an endless supply of words 
so I charge ahead with my bumper 
raised high as my ego- flipping off orthodoxy


Appeared in the Rockhurst Fine Arts Review - Edition 19 - Spring 2006



House Arrest

 The first day,
 he sank
 a flattened
 wet cardboard box.
 
 He never lost hope
 
 (maybe once)
 
 hours grew long
 like rodent’s teeth
 when prevented from gnawing
 until days and nights
 came together     and one
 could not be distinguished
 from another       and time
 meaningless
 always stood watch.
 
 Walls he once had a hand in
 decorating now chilled concrete
 he didn’t recognize,
 
 each machete blade
 of the ceiling fan
 silently poised
 above his head.
 
 Guards brought meals,
 an occasional letter
 (always pre-opened) something taken
 from its context.
 
 After a while       they were no longer
 enemy, just an extension
 of the door—he could not pass.
 
 Through the months he learned
 to take his heart out.    Hold it,
—remind it that it too was loved.


​Appeared in Rose & Thorn Journal Spring 2011




Obsession

You’ve become a transparency
overlapping everything in my mind.
I see you in every crowd. You inhabit
my dreams and can be see permeating
every picture— wedged somewhere
behind or to the side of the subject
photobombing your way into my life.
Last night from the other room
I heard your name called out
in a commercial on TV;
Obsession— Obsession--
Of course my interest was piqued
by this Calvin Kline whose name
was mentioned. Who is this man
and what has he to do with
my Obsession?

Appeared in Ordinary Madness Volume 1




Something We Held in Common

Did I miss you
because you were not here
or because I only knew a concept of you?

Can you be angry at someone
you don’t really know
and love them at the same time?

Your name was all I had of you.
It was our name; something we held
in common when I didn’t even have a picture

of you to hold. So, I didn’t really have you.
I could not produce you
for parent-teacher night.

I could not explain
to friends what I did not
understand myself.

When mom sent me with a proxy
to Indian Guides, it was the longest night ever.
Neither of us wanted to be there,

sitting cross legged on the floor
thinking of senseless Indian names
for each other in some cute father son way.
​
And later, when he wanted to take your name
away from me – in exchange for his,
I would have no part of it.

​
First appeared in Boston Literary Magazine
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