Noah Stetzer

Bait & Blind

this is the man that I cannot forget
that I fold into cranes and hang with string
from the ceiling, a twisting gray paper
keepsake catching the corner of my eye

there a glimpse of him moving—must be wind
inside this still room that I cannot hear
or feel—this creased idea, mythic
shape of leaving of heading out and gone

the still square of this cool morning inside
the room inside the house; an unseen wind,
exhaled breath of the hidden passes through

but I’m folding sheets of blank white paper
to capture him, tucking corners inside
corners with small hope that something lingers

________________________________________________________________________________________

Noah Stetzer is the author of Because I Can See Needing a Knife (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). His Pushcart-nominated poems have appeared in the New England Review, Nimrod International Journal of Prose & Poetry, Green Mountains Review, Bellevue Literary Review and other journals. He has been a fellow of the Lambda Literary Retreat and a work-study scholar at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference. Noah lives in Kansas City and can be found online at www.noahstetzer.com.