The 2River View 15.4 (Summer 2011)
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Thomas Cochran

Collage Sonnet 3

I have never seen tomorrow
while playing with my friends.
It's my fault because I'm here,
no longer going down to the ships.
I need you tonight, standing
on the far bank waiting.
But in case we've never met,
come sit with me.
It is time to remove built-up heat—
unless you are sure you want this.
May I talk to your high walls?
May I look around your revenge?
May I accept your bones?
I think of nothing else.

Collage Sonnet 5

In so many years of marriage
you have a pretty good idea
of how you're going to be received.
It is the opening night, your debut,
and you have no idea how
to make the necessary connection.
The senior member suffers—
whether in the proper mood
or up for an after hours session.
This is the eternal romance,
a tangle of clients forming new liaisons
in the middle of lunch.
One blame follows another
and the senses become mesmerized.

Thomas Cochran was raised in Haynesville, Louisiana. He has written two novels, Roughnecks (Harcourt) and Running the Dogs (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). His non-fiction and poetry have appeared in Oxford American and Rattle. A schoolteacher, he lives with his wife in northwest Arkansas. contact

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