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Burt Osborne Rules The World

All day long, on that day in the sixth grade when my life changed forever and the world became a better place, everything had been smelling and tasting like overcooked eggs.

No One Said How It Would Be

My mother’s hair turned in two weeks from chestnut, as she called it, to shocking white. “I am shocking white,” she said that morning when I came into the kitchen, awakened by the smell of toast.

Light Polarized, Pored Over

Graduation

A secret admirer, a new mother, a kind motorist

What Every Boy Knows

Poor Mortals

Larry couldn’t stop thinking of Mrs. Foster. He thought he must be in love with her. He never raised his hand in any class except hers. The other teachers didn’t seem to care whether he answered questions or not.

Selected Poems

Even the page says, / Don’t spill that ink / on this unspoiled white. / Your scribbles are / so broken, your words / so bald, so patent, / they reveal your / mediocrity.

—from “Hierophant”

Conspiracies

Failure

A Boy Scout, an old friend, an excellent craftsman

Standing Tall

A first-time voter, a calm mother, a girl who wouldn’t be bullied