Condiments   relish love laid on thick like mayonnaise now bitter like vinegar salt in the wound mustard strength to say it’s over   ketchup       Zack Hoffman   2024

Comrades   war protestors intellectuals performance artists with no tools for higher education   photo of four playing hearts days of friendship and smoke one eaten by multiple sclerosis one eaten by heroin one eaten by grief   when I was dying you scooped me up took me home roots never took   when you

Union we march to nowhere protesting nothing apathy sticks to us like beach tar sing a song of entitlement coffee while God sits in a football field dispensing Ozempic

Homeland raised without parents in different places moved to a city where I had no memory plan of protection through invisibility keep the head down endure the living moved to a city where I had no memory beating heart of ice begins to melt keep the head down seek out a living hearing strangers start

This is one of my favorite poems from “Late Model”. 70 Love when I was young my reputation was “that kid is really good” sharp and bold and fleet of foot with a racquet made of wood I used to run onto the court with shoes and shorts and shirt and now I spend some

My Love have you forgotten me in the dust of time grey and wrinkles chill the memory that sparks from deteriorating photos once we laughed naked spooned intimacy at midnight silent human endearment world of past and future light years away distant heart music yearning to touch once again long slow passion with bones that

Winter Morning disconnected mind waking in darkness street shines with oil grit and raindrops churning stomach and drip coffee unmade empty bed vacant of beloved street shines with oil grit and raindrops water patterns on a window at dawn unmade empty bed vacant of beloved a desk a pen and clouded thoughts water patterns on

Afternoon at Cousin Shirley’s sights of Bathurst Ave flew by in the back seat of an unfamiliar car Mac’s Milk and signs of Export A told me I was safe in Toronto silence continued in the back seat once a year was all there was cousin Shirley’s family meet and greet a pinch a kiss

Voting Block the land of no choice whatsoever seven million squatters roam food expensive and life cheap load your rifles aim toward fear seven million squatters roam tainted milk, salmonella honey load your rifles aim toward fear screaming no more old white guys tainted milk, salmonella honey news too painful for my eyes writing “no