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Woodland Pattern™    Book   Center Poetry Archive		Daniel Khalastchi Born and raised in Iowa, Daniel Khalastchi is a first-generation Iraqi Jewish American. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a recent fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, he is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Marquette University. His first collection of poetry, Manoleria (2011), was awarded the Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Prize, and his poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Kenyon Review, jubilat, and Denver Quarterly. He lives in Milwaukee where he is also the co-editor of Rescue Press.

Like Bricks, Like Bricks: Daniel Khalastchi

On  a  lighthouse ledge I stand holding    a   boulder.   Hugged by a fishing net,  the drag end of the line is threaded through a  hole   pricked  wide   in  my tongue.    Last   week,    they planted  a  cherry  tree  in my abdomen.  It's  watered when I   sleep,   and   opening   my mouth I feel its dry  branches stretch  the   length   of   my larynx.  A  pile  of  woodchips helps  to   cover   the   roots growing  down   through   my arches.  From  the  tower,  a lamp  and   mirror  spit-bright the water  every  full  eleven seconds.    I fear if I breathe the          stitching         will loosen.     When   I   let   go the   rock   I   move  nothing my  body.

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