Certified Preowned

Tommy O’Rourke

he/him

Against the withering

smog-stained blossoms

of Western Avenue.

And limitless,

the indulgence of funeral homes

and used car dealerships

when you were writhing

in your seagreen bed

whispering Mary.

Beyond the glass buildings,

a plastic bag bobs in the lake

contending

Thank You

Thank You.

A switchblade

open and rusted in the sand

like a submerged incisor.

The sound of your voice,

a shard of glass dragged

against concrete, set

to the arpeggios

of the Chaconne.

Of violins and voices

broken long ago

against the stucco cornices

of the imperial apartments.

Leaning my head

against the cold window

I struggle to reconstruct

your hands. That there were

two of them. That they were

ravaged maps.

Tommy O'Rourke is a writer, DJ, and educator. His poetry and criticism have appeared in Fence, Hobart, Tesserae Press, and elsewhere. A finalist for CutBank's Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, he has received the Jesse H. Cochran Memorial Award from Butler University and a fellowship from the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. He lives in Chicago and teaches literature at The Noble Academy, a high school in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood. He is an MFA candidate at the Bennington Writing Seminars. Find him at tommyorourke.com or on Instagram @___i_too_dislike_it___.