Deadline

by Steven Deutsch

Early sun surprises.
Eyes like ground glass
and my hand
asleep on the keyboard.

Remember the summer
before working papers
at your uncle’s
bungalow colony.

The murky lake
and an old woven basket
for a basketball hoop.
Bare chested 

days that lasted
for weeks and 
cares no more
worrisome 

then a stoved 
middle finger.
Ah, for a time machine—
I can’t help

thinking,
as I shake my hand
and rub my eyes.
Fedex at ten.

___

Steve Deutsch is poetry editor of Centered Magazine and is poet in residence at the Bellefonte Art Museum. Steve was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. His Chapbook, Perhaps You Can, was published in 2019 by Kelsay Press. His full length books, Persistence of Memory and Going, Going, Gone, were published by Kelsay. Slipping Away will be published this spring. Brooklyn was awarded the Sinclair Poetry Prize from Evening Street Press and will also be published this spring.