POETICS
Fred Maus

A man’s arm around
another man’s waist— 
is that a line of a poem? 

The crackle of glassy coherence, 
the imbalance of making sense, 
the wasted unease of change. 

When I fell asleep, almost  
touching you, was that
a line break? When our eyes caught,  
then veered—a half-rhyme?

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Fred Everett Maus is a writer and musician living in Earlysville, Virginia. He teaches music courses at the University of Virginia. He has published published poetry and creative non-fiction in Richmond Magazine, Vox Populi, Open Space, repercussions, and Perspectives of New Music.