NOW (SONNINA)
  
                Another sick excuse     
                  to postpone now.
                   We won’t excuse 
                  this: a proper now        
                 must clear our field   
                              of lice,
    
                        must firmly field            
         short-ra(n)ge objections. The matter lies      
   beyond defensive asset orientation allowing fuel       
              to sap its alleged beneficiaries.
             This now calls everyone to fuel  
                  hospitably. Beneficiaries 
  
                               spring   
              forward. To reactivate spring.
  
  
 EXECUTIVE SOLILOQUY
  
 You’re the style 
 of dog that spays its dozing master.
 This season’s   
 consumption record: wretched. On 
 the edge of treason.
  
 But we’ll see       
 about that, Buster.   
 We’ll turn you 
 into a sound investment. 
  
 Some stellar       
 magnetisms remain to be              
 unearthed by an imminent 
  
 name brand who   
 figures how to plant a miracle.

Thomas Fink has published 11 books of poetry– most recently A Pageant for Every Addiction (Marsh Hawk P, 2020), written collaboratively with Maya D. Mason, Hedge Fund Certainty (Meritage P and i.e. P, 2019) and Selected Poems & Poetic Series (Marsh Hawk, 2016). His books of criticism include “A Different Sense of Power”: Problems of Community in Late Twentieth-Century U.S. Poetry (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2001) and the co-edited anthology, Reading the Difficulties: Dialogues with Contemporary American Innovative Poetry (U of Alabama P, 2014).  His work appeared in Best American Poetry 2007, edited by David Lehman and Heather McHugh. His paintings hang in various collections. Fink is Professor of English at CUNY-LaGuardia.