12 Short Poems Michael Gottlieb THE TABLELAND what was once seriously referred to as moral rearmament a go of it, uttering, irretrievable, cast-down, draughts first-drawing rights exacting its fee, as if we hadn't chosen this life In the land of steady habits, a suspect call-back a back-of-the-envelope hazarding, a certain catspaw, a self-sowing rejoinder a crazed finish, like crackling, seeps across the tableland before our eyes, like the effect of some terrible reagent. When we can see again we behold an utterly altered world. In the distance, the towering profile of the front wheeling over a newly arisen horizon clumsy trace, search parties         next