A List of His Flaws

By PETER MISHLER

Single-headed.

Flowering inwardly.

Barely felt in the birth canal.

Medical marketer.

Sick with planet.

Cupped like a handful of sea uncertainly held.

Carried fire to the human encampment.

Herod in boyhood.

An herbicide.

Given name known to the weapons inspectors.

Anchorite.

All alane.

Drowned his horse at the edge of the pier.

Covered in silverfish.

Drank Sutter Home.

Wept but briefly through the grate of mesh.

Fist full of clip-art.

Asked why the mask sweat.

Ancestry swabs in his cheeks like two tusks.

Mouth like a storm drain.

Flashdrive of redheads.

Nudity a vestige from the vault in which he hid.

Did not provide succor, a perch, or a crawlspace.

Became the mother reborn in the son.

Territory manager.

Sloppy kisser.

Face concealer.

Eaten-up thumbs.

Shit-shoveler.

Inner-Caesar.

Underwhelming shield.

Endymion.

 

[Purchase Issue 19 here.] 

Peter Mishler‘s debut collection is Fludde. Other new work appears this year in Granta and The American Poetry Review.

From the beginning, The Common has brought you transportive writing and exciting new voices. We are committed to supporting writers and maintaining free, unrestricted access to our website, but we can’t do it without you. Become an integral part of our global community of readers and writers by donating today. No amount is too small. Thank you!

A List of His Flaws

Related Posts

Two Poems by Hendri Yulius Wijaya

HENDRI YULIUS WIJAYA
time and again his math teacher grounded him in the courtyard to lower / the level of his sissyness. the head sister chanted his name in prayer to thwart // him from playing too frequently with girl classmates. long before he’s enamored with the word / feminist

Dispatch: Two Poems

SHANLEY POOLE
I’m asking for a new geography, / something beyond the spiritual. // Tell me again, about that first / drive up Appalachian slopes // how you knew on sight these hills / could be home. I want // this effervescent temporary, here / with the bob-tailed cat // and a hundred hornet nests.

cover of paradiso

May 2025 Poetry Feature: Dante Alighieri, translated by Mary Jo Bang

DANTE ALIGHIERI
In order that the Bride of Him who cried out loudly / When He married her with His sacred blood / Might gladly go to her beloved / Feeling sure in herself and with more faith / In Him—He ordained two princes / To serve her, one on either side, as guides.