Caryl Pagel

Birthday Song 

“How is a knife made 

how are cups”          

Measure what you hold aloft          

Crinkle of the crown’s crow          

Raised lids amphibians

Please sit down 

on your knees or buns

Bike delivered in a sofa-sized box

Blow them out 

Weather

A folder warm with last 

month’s cash

No lamp in this office 

Doo bee doo bee doo

Unhinging the updo

Thousands of federal employees fired

A tree in the concourse

Recognizing the algo

Living the true coup

Chainsaw

Over and over and “over 

the moon”

Sniffing into an empty room

Stranger staring hardly aghast 

Straight at the border

75 loners

One snob

Only menacing if writing 

is content

Not a Formation

Red flannel 

blanket check

Chatty aflamed embarrassment 

Hearing the beep of the neighbor’s car

Storm in the drain

Storm in the app

Syrupy storm

Storming 

the group chat