Head in the Clouds

Noah Burton

Even the finches
thrown up and tossed
around turbines like salted
boots in a mud room
cut his hair. The planes
chop at his earlobes.
A copter, on tour,
trims his mustache.
The body that lies
under water is at odds
with the density
of the gods: So does
his faith declare. This
giant. This fat-lipped
mountain, having been
wailed at by a NASA rocket,
you have everything to look
forward to: moisture
and percolating swans.

 
 
 

about the writer

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Noah Burton lives in Maine. His poems have appeared in the PEN America Poetry Series, Yes Poetry, Paperbag, among others, and his collection, Look Out Animal, is forthcoming from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. In 2015, he was selected by Tanya Larkin for the Dick Shea Memorial Prize in Poetry. Noah holds an MFA from the University of New Hampshire.