New Poetry by Mark J. Mitchell

Little God Lost

Disguised as art, he slides through the city

like some chess piece left behind when the rules

got drawn up. He sorts every face he sees—

checks or mates. His cracked harlequin mask, blue

under streetlights, can burn red when he needs

passion. He makes confetti notes. Swallows

them without reading. He steals just nothing,

borrowing dropped souls. He’s never allowed

in certain dreams. There are corners his mask

can’t hide, where the voice it uses to sing

is too cold. It cracks lost jewelry—glass,

not precious. He rests. Sleeps on the night bus.

It slides like a rook towards dawn. The last

notes cling to his framed mask. Cool. Safe as dust.

- © Mark J. Mitchell 2022

Mark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up in southern California. His latest poetry collection, Roshi San Francisco, was just published by Norfolk Publishing. Starting from Tu Fu   was recently published by Encircle Publications. A new collection, Something to Be and a novel are forthcoming. He is very fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Miles Davis, Kafka and Dante. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the activist and documentarian, Joan Juster where he made his marginal living pointing out pretty things. Now, he’s looking for work again. He has published 2 novels and three chapbooks and four full length collections so far. His first chapbook won the Negative Capability Award.