UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/CHRIS MIDDLEMAN


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY

CHRIS MIDDLEMAN

Notebooks

Each of the coffee rings
on these pages are
like jailhouse tattoos,
representing another 2 hours

that might have been spent
working a part-time job
to help pay off debts or
to put away for a house, like one does

Instead, I’ve drunk pots of coffee,
I’ve spilled bottles of ink, working out
the arithmetic of finding some
alternate, eloquent way of telling you

that I do care,
very much, about things
Far more than you’d ever realize
or cared enough to listen to

Chris Middleman grew up in Downingtown, Pennsylvania and now calls Seattle his home. His poetry has appeared in several publications including The New York Quarterly, Zygote in My Coffee and The Boston Literary Magazine. His pop culture criticism appears online at Spectrum Culture where serves as Music Editor.