By Cyrus Console, from a manuscript in progress. Console is the author of The Odicy (Omnidawn).

What a day to be overweight

With all one has in the world

On a park bench in a park mostly

Consecrated to the needle

When I was fourteen the poet Cyrus Console

Was my best friend in the world

My stepmother disliked him because he was

Sensitive and decently intelligent

And his father a doctor

All my stepparents disliked him

“Decent” was a word I favored

To indicate moderate quantity

Though I did not realize it at the time

I had certain…