from The Corridors (1)
employees
touch
documents
---
documents
touch
flame
---
give
and
take
---
basement
heat
shield
---
shredded
particle
oven
---
the
soot
tangles
#
false floor
beneath
the baths
---
crawlspace
a half-body’s
height
---
employees
between
the bricks
---
lumber
by the
armful
---
breath
becomes
steam
---
upward, into
the bathing
class
#
this
strict
area
---
arc
of
cough
---
here
you
are
#
all literature
disguises
the actors
---
the
private
residents
---
the
structural
changes
---
eventually,
sodden beams
give
---
the
balcony
lumbers
#
gilt
becomes
the neighborhood
---
the neighborhood
becomes
less secure
---
bodies
become
mystified
---
and
attack
the street
#
don’t
mistake
it
---
their
flung
concrete
---
their
boxing glove
sedan
---
they loose
their hands
and break
the block
#
Brendan Allen
Brendan Allen is a Kansan poet living in Philadelphia. He's currently an MFA student and writing instructor at Temple University. Before that, he spent a lot of time bouncing between school, farm labor, and the food service industry. His poetry has appeared in Landlocked Magazine.