Poetry: Gabriel Welsch
Press Conference
Lies are a special Esperanto.
A language spoken with a set of the eyes,
in a suit a few sizes too big, to make
room for spasms of the heart’s
remaining muscle, the torn
slips of paper and innuendo
adding up to a surrogate soul,
the meaning holds its feet not
in syllables but the telemetry
among the vicious. A podium
has to prop the microphone
and the chest of the speaker
as his lungs fill and sag
with the air we try
not to breathe.
Gabriel Welsch writes fiction and poetry, and is the author of four collection of poems, the most recent of which is The Four Horsepersons of a Disappointing Apocalypse (Steel Toe Books, 2013). His work appears recently in Adroit Journal, Gulf Coast, Chautauqua, Pembroke Review, Tahoma Literary Review, and Mid-American Review. He lives in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, with his family, works as vice president of advancement and marketing at Juniata College, and is an occasional teacher at the Chautauqua Writer’s Center.
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