Muscle Memory
(Cento: first lines from Stephen Dunn poems)
A doll’s pink broken-off arm,
an early frost and a lone cricket.
Back then when so much was clear
a man was dancing with the wrong woman.
The pines were swaying in the serious wind
that time I thought I was in love.
After the affair and the moving out,
how can we not be fascinated that auks
do not try to be faithful?
Storms moved across the Rockies,
there was death
hovering over the day.
We were by the hedge that separates our properties.
My neighbor was a biker, a pusher, a dog.
God was listening but even so
on gray forgetful mornings like this
what sad freedom I have
between angels, on this earth,
among the powerless.
Rick Adang graduated from Indiana University with a BA in Psychology and English and a
Creative Writing Honors poetry collection. He taught English as a foreign language for many years
and is currently living in Estonia. Lately, he has been reading the poetry of Dorianne Laux, Dean
Young and Bob Hicok. He has had poems published in many literary magazines, most recently in
Hamilton Stone Review, Book of Matches, Midwest Quarterly, Cholla Needles and Fresh Words:
An International Literary Journal.