Spring 2009, Volume 6

Poetry by J. B. Mulligan

Apartment Affair

She hears coughing from the next apartment,
a hammer (she decides) beating on the cold
that scratches up the tower of his throat.
Yeah, that's it. She imagines his life
(she's seen him; middle-aged, plump,
black hair tangled like a weedy lawn)
is disappointing, dreams fallen off him
like petals, and blown away years ago.
Her parents are like that; she loves them
but she doesn't want their life for her.
That he might have a daughter of his own
doesn't occur to her. The man isn't alive
so much as a hook to hang a thought on.
When he passes her on the stairs,
she imagines his dark eyes, hot on her
and wide... sometimes they are, briefly.


BIO:  JBMulligan has had poems and stories in dozens of magazines, including recently, Contemporary Sonnet, Argestes, Tonopah Review, Loch Raven Review, Short Story and The Externalist, and two chapbooks: The Stations of the Cross and THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS, and has appeared in the anthology Inside Out: A Gathering of Poets.