12 Short Poems Michael Gottlieb UNTIMELY the opportunity cost deeply lobed with creasings of mischance, haphazard slabbed-up bergs of rueful admission a nodding acquaintance, those few-but-not-happy vainly amending the soil Illuminated as if by sheet lightning, cast-over with a sheen of guile, as if some cover had been thrown back, the chased figures frozen in mid-grasp. Here -- this much you can keep. You might even say you earned it length-wise, rudely stitched, untimely, the persuasive rods and cones Eager and underfed, on a longer leash. A perceived footfall bottom fishing naught for you         index