tangerine ghost limbs extend the golden tangle
of the bed the potted tree back-lit you might
measure a life’s worth by
what its rooms collect in light
you might but I wouldn’t recommend it
as long gone already be this day’s radiance
outside lit condos probe the night the bright longings
of coins only rise from a fountain
as it drains

Metro North Be

on earth a single train
stampedes its links beneath a bridge
where someone wronged has scribbled Hell
and all around the teeth of homes
be rowed betwixt a monster’s lips
but that acerbic breath be mine
that frosts the train car’s window glass
as it zooms past the national helicopter
museum the kinky boots billboards
the usual track four delays

MRB Chelko is the recipient of a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship for Manhattations (PSA, 2014). Her work has appeared in many journals and chapbooks – current and forthcoming publications include Black Warrior Review, The Cincinnati Review, Gulf Coast, Salt Hill, and Washington Square Review. A recent John Ciardi Tuition Scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Chelko holds an MFA from The University of New Hampshire and lives in Harlem.