John M. Fitzgerald is a poet, writer, editor and attorney for the disabled in Los Angeles. A dual citizen of the US and Ireland, he attended the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, where he was editor of the Law Review. His first book, Spring Water, was a Turning Point Books prize selection in 2005. He has also published Telling Time by the Shadows (2008), The Mind (2011) and Favorite Bedtime Stories (2014). His poems have been included in anthologies and many literary magazines. He lives and works in Santa Monica, California.
Epigram
From Herotoclus , the Uncouth:
"You fucking people come here expecting poetry?"
Note the Ancient Islandic translates more literally:
"you children of goats come here expecting poetry?"
He was scheduled to read outside the library on the island
the very moment of the famous utterance.
In all fairness Herotoclus was, at the time,
the only one facing the tidal wave.
One can see though how he deserves his moniker.
Fairy Tale
Once, there were four brothers.
One owned all the water.
One owned all the fire,
one owned all the food,
and one all the air.
We stuffed these leeches in a hole
and ate and drank and breathed.
Tooth Fairies
They come, or cross over, in measured degree
proportionately as I ignore them
to provide for orderly creation
Make any point possess the whole
and understand the secret
of the teardrop that I came from
Allow the smoke to dissipate
the reek to wane, or rearrange
as I was saying
All I really need
has been revealed to me in fairy tales
They fashion piano keys from our teeth
to produce that twinkling sound in flight
It's thriving trade, so they have charts
much as butchers do for meat
Canine, molar, bicuspid
each fetches its particular price
But as I said, they enter in
and run around through holes in my head
like bugs weighing my mind
beneath my pillow as I dream
They leave as payment
the equivalent of my aspirations
which is always a quarter
They come only at night
because all the world fears a human being
and when we catch one
we tie it to strings
and drag it behind cars at weddings
for the musical sparks left in its wake
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