Andy Fogle
New Batteries for Your Halo
Silver Son
One drawer in the kitchen is full of knives,
one hook of his closet draped with ties.
Sometimes it feels like my tongue’s on fire
from all this trying to make the silence listen.
Sometimes it’s tied up tight as my guts
when the old man gets that quiet about him
and unbuckles. Think you know what famine
is? All them kids on tv? Walk
a night in my mind, creep the blurred halls
of my house, cut your breath on the wet weight
of indifference. One drawer in the kitchen
is full of knives, one hook of his closet
draped with ties. Sometimes my mouth is so swollen
full of sound, my only faith’s in how its fire
works, how it pops, and the words stream down my jaw.
31 Pages
$9
isbn 1-59661-054-9
Moonlight through an ambulance of fugue, New Batteries for Your Halo possesses us with an unprepossessing clairvoyance that exalts the dark alleys connecting denouement to resurgence. Andy Fogle is a poet of dazzling vision and command. He has conducted a riveting concert.
—Mark Fitzgerald
Andy Fogle’s poetry is a lighthouse, a boat ticket, a last seat and a way out. He has what few have: knowledge of the enigma of the poem, its mysterious interiority, its final yes. As long as I’ve known his work I’ve admired it, and recognized him as a born poet, someone among us to be read and for whose presence in our midst to be grateful—thank you, Andy, for your startling lucidity.
—Carolyn Forché
Andy Fogle is the author of Extincting the Drunk (March Street Press), a book critic for Popmatters.com, and has released three albums with the rock band Calibos. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, raised there and in Virginia Beach, he now teaches at Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York.
Designer's Note:
I had to do a lot of covers before I did one to meet the author's approval. Since no one will ever see these covers, and some of them are pretty cool, here are the images they were based on:
