SLEEP TALK

Night-flecked windows. Stars crimp across
misshapen blinds. Shadows snore like bats. Unfettered
mirrors dream bodies, smudged, and sound-colored.

This is the only world. There could be others
quite the same, as ravished, as unremarkably red gone red.

---

Mark Fleckenstein was born in Chicago, and grew up in Ohio, Michigan, Connecticut, North Carolina and New Hampshire. He graduated from University of North Carolina in Charlotte with a B.A. in English and after completing his MFA in Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, moved to Massachusetts, and became very involved in the Boston area poetry community. He was an assistant editor for (BLuR), the Boston Literary Review, founder/coordinator of two bi-weekly poetry reading series in Boston, a workshop leader and twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has given poetry readings with famous poets (Charles Simic, Linda Gregg, Mark Doty, Mark Cox and Carl Phillips) and not so famous poets.