Robert Carr

Reflection in Ice

I’ve always had a hole for there,
and one for missing. In the hole
for there, I keep some black oil
sunflower seeds to feed the gold-
finch, a few resentments
in a crowded kitchen corner,
a pike pulled from lake ice
for the raptors. In the hole for missing,
there’s a jet smooth edge,
a mouth I left outside an unlocked
door, a kiss I didn’t catch.
Holes are wincing eyes in a skull,
whirlpools in the dark keeping me
alert to what I have, and don’t.

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Robert Carr is the author of Amaranth, published in 2016 by Indolent Books and The Unbuttoned Eye, a full-length 2019 collection from 3: A Taos Press. Among other publications his poetry appears in Crab Orchard Review, Lana Turner Journal, Maine Review, Massachusetts Review and Shenandoah. Selected by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, he is the recipient of a 2022 artist residency at Monson Arts. Additional information can be found at robertcarr.org