for Michael Dickman

I see the night’s point—
but I see it and raise it,
tell it to lay down its cards
as I push my pile
of mice bones
and chewed feathers
across the table
in that real-nice-n-slow way
that only the ears
of sleeping burros know.

Michael McGriff is the author of four collections of poetry, Eternal Sentences (University of Arkansas Press, 2021), Early Hour (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), Home Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2012), and Dismantling the Hills (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008). His other books include the story collection Our Secret Life in the Movies (A Strange Object, 2014), a translation of Tomas Tranströmer’s The Sorrow Gondola (Green Integer, 2010), and an edition of David Wevill’s essential poetry and translations, To Build My Shadow a Fire (Truman State University Press, 2010). He serves as co-director of the creative writing program at the University of Idaho.