Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of 16 print and digital poetry chapbooks and the full-length collection of poetry, Lovesick (2009). His second full-length collection, Heart With a Dirty Windshield, will be
published by BeWrite Books.

The officer assigned to take my statement
had stopped listening. Nobody wants to hear
about false feelings of well being, the woman
who was next to me in line but not with me,
trees bobbing to the surface holding hands.
We’re such elaborate animals. At some point,
the chief of police stuck his head into the room.
Can you please just skip over the dull parts?
he asked. I may have shrugged. Any explanation
abbreviates, anyway. It was only two days till spring,
and leaving the station, I noticed for the first time
the moon’s vacant stare, its black front tooth.