Matthew Schmidt

Meshes of the Afternoon (and Evening)

—after the film

Pick up the flower. Pick it.
Door is locked, key is dropped
inside the butter knife of the bread.

Some of us stick to our chairs,
some become ourselves
beside ourselves. Ask the key

be the knife is your hand.
No, mine. The staircase twists
and we flail the walls. Follow

the mirror-faced one, never etch ourselves,
feel ourselves. Turn off the record. I hear
the key pull your tongue.

Turn yourself asleep. I arrive
home at your body. No,
I cannot be evening.

Matthew Schmidt’s poems have been published in Pleiades, The Seattle Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, and elsewhere. He is an associate poetry editor at Fairy Tale Review and the Co-Founding Editor of the Iowa-based literary editing and educational nonprofit 1-Week Critique.