Jerry Ratch
Jerry Ratch has published eleven books of poetry and one novel. He lives in Oakland, California.Bricked-in Dream
A man walks up and faces
This new red brick wall.
The bricks are all perfect,
As you might expect in a dream.
And the cement is tuck-painted
Without a dribble, anywhere.
He looks at the wall
And puts his head through it.
And when he pulls his head back,
There's a brick missing.This man thinks Brick .
Brick.
But it's no emergency.
To him Brick is not
An emergency.
When this brick is gone,
When it's completely consumed in his mind,
He will take another,
And another,
And another.
And you know and he knows
That he will never worry over Brick
Again.
Brother Dream
It's always daylight there.
My brother comes running down the sidewalk,
holding out his arms and calling my name.
He's wearing suspenders. He's gotten thinner
in heaven.
He embraces me warmly,
wanting us to be friends.
I give up trying to resist.
I don't know why I ever did
in real life.
