Dan Gallik

I. An Abundance of My Weakened Estate
II. The Doubting Motions of a Man
III. Drawing Straight Hope from Joy
IV. About Dan

An Abundance Of My Weakened Estate

The tempest under a teapot dome,
she said, is what’s under this
Atlanta girl’s chromed bald pate.

I looked at her and said I was
telling her the only truth. She
laughed that damn sarcastic groan

and retorted, I made love to you
yesterday and it felt to me like
the beginning of the Ice Age. I

ate a peach and walked off. She
laughed more, mixing it with my
exhaust. My storm went northward.

My provisions, my fortifications
were always less than hers, but
still there, and waiting. Day-

dreamed about our sex and her
head, and how all my orgasms with
her had to do with those two

visions. Yes, so, I went begging
back to her, down on my sordid
knees, and it was then that she

introduced me to another sexy
vision. Her morbid groan as
she came and died in our bed,

at once, as the sun in western,
downward moving fashion settled
into its deep gleeful sleep.

The Doubting Motions of a Man

Should have killed himself.
The sweet despair of death
would have conquered blind
living in a soft, deep couch.
His astrology would have
worked. The centric earth
would have swallowed his
living in the ugly city.
As is death, so is a sphere.
His lady would have become
an axle tree whose terminus is
the centering of an old friend.
The poles of the zodiac would
become wiggly as jello. Pals
would not mourn their enemy.

Drawing Straight Hope From Joy

Love bent them into one
as the flow of the snow
curved itself into awful
drifts. Angled looks and

tones flushed the birds
onto slippery pebbles.
Revealed life as docile
melodies coming into a one.

Before aloof, now winding
into all knowledge two
came eye to eye and saw
nursling lives brightening.

The hoard became a hum.
Invaded harm meant not
a thing. She gasped as
he grinned away any sins.


Dan Gallik has had poetry and short stories published by Hawaii Review, Talking River, Ginger Hill, Parabola, Nimrod, Limestone, The Hiram Poetry Review, Aura, and Whiskey Island.