Michael Dylan Welch

near the end
of the spooky story
her raised eyebrow

school trip—
the zoo gorilla
masturbating

poetry conference—
an opinion
from outer space

tractor beam malfunction—
a turquoise mountain lake
hovers above us

red pines—
our pup tent squashed
in the giant footprint

 

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MICHAEL DYLAN WELCH has been writing poetry since he was a child, and never got over it. He lives with his wife and two children in Sammamish, Washington, where he’s president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword, curator of SoulFood Poetry Night, and served two terms as Redmond poet laureate. He’s founder and president of the Tanka Society of America, founder of National Haiku Writing Month (www.nahaiwrimo.com), and proprietor of www.graceguts.com, devoted mostly to poetry. His poems and essays have appeared in hundreds of publications in more than twenty languages. Michael also enjoys travel, photography, books, racquetball, and skiing.