Poems by Michael Glaser

Hunger
 
Imagine the hungry
gathering late into the night
at the dumpster                   
behind Food Lion,
harming no one 
                            
then wish for each one
the trash bin of Van Gogh,
or Picasso or Monet, 
the sketches and canvases
they threw away. 
 
 Michael S. Glaser
 
                   
 Passing By
 
He held out a cup
and I reached
for some coins.
 
He scowled. 
 
“I thought you wanted some bread,”
I said, certain he was going to ask
for more than this easy lint from my pocket.
 
I looked into his eyes and suddenly
felt ashamed that I lacked the courage 
to offer something his heart could chew on,
 
something from the warm oven
of my comfortable life, something
he might inhale deeply like oxygen,
some genuine bread for the journey –
each slice an offering
to sweeten his life again.
 
 Michael S. Glaser

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Michael S. Glaser is a former Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2004 who has edited three anthologies of poetry, co-edited the Complete Poems of Lucille Clifton for BOA Editions, and published several award winning volumes of his own work, most recently, Threshold of Light with Bright Hill Publishing (2019).    More at www.michaelsglaser.com

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