Poems

Pa By Patrick T. Reardon . Drive Chronicles Avenue straight out of downtown for three miles to the railroad bridge, empty as a Roman ruin, turn right toward the spray-paint [...]

Mercy! Charity! Faith! Holy! By Patrick T. Reardon . Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the middleclass! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebellion! — Allen Ginsberg, “Footnote [...]

Goddess By Patrick T. Reardon . The Mexican goddess enfleshed in McDonald’s with a wide smile under her wide mountain nose and her children, all girls under eight, alert to [...]

Canticle By Patrick T. Reardon . Water-splashed forehead. Product of times.  Cheek slapped, new name, chrism. Child of century. Sign of. . Communion of saints. Myrrh burial. Finger ringed. Deathly [...]

Grandma By Patrick T. Reardon . The showers have turned to drizzle. Drops fall heavily now from the black limbs of a bare tree in the glare of the street [...]

The Tribune writes the Bible By Patrick T. Reardon . We are not afraid of height. During slack summer, we will write a better Bible. . This will be a [...]

Adman walked south By Patrick T. Reardon . Adman walked south on Leviathan Boulevard toward glitter Loop announcing:      I will anthem sing tomorrow, prophet talk.     I will speak in [...]

Odyssey By Patrick T. Reardon . Face of God, name of God, child death in every home, Egyptian, Israelite, Canaanite — let people go — sea split, walled water,  tabernacle [...]

Bourbon Street, New Orleans, the night before the Chicago Bears won the 1986 Super Bowl, 46-10 By Patrick T. Reardon . George could not suppress his animal glee, eyes filled [...]