Jake Bauer
Summer 2025 | Poetry
Porcupine Reimagined
Walter Doctor
Councilman the Third
stirs cherry soda
evilly, with an umbrella-toothpick.
If life is just a fast boat
to the next island, well,
I’d rather stay here.
The auctioneer
mounts the stage,
says do I hear two hundred?
through thin, tight lips.
They make you think
of a field of thin lips,
ready for harvest.
But first, you walk
to the center
with your daughter.
You take a deep breath.
You say this here
will get us through winter.
Jake Bauer is the author of the collection Tracey Emin’s Tent (42 Miles Press), the chapbook Big Pool, Oh (Factory Hollow Press), and co-author of the chapbook Idaho Falls (SurVision Books).