Two Poems

by Paul Ilechko

Love Will Tear Us Apart

His job was to collect dead animals

from the streets and highways     deer

raccoons     possums     and the occasional

house pet     piling them into the back

of his truck     splashing the stains

with soapy water     his wife worked

at HQ     processing the collected chunks

dissecting limbs for sorting where

another team would reassemble them

with sewing machines and hot glue

guns     a raccoon body with a deer’s

head and possum feet     or any number

of variations to be shipped by train

and truck to the far corners of the nation

where they are sold in atrocity stores

for the amusement of the populace.

The Greenhouse Couplets

Water drips slowly from a faucet

drip   drip   drip   filling the vase brimful

elegant as a porcelain jar

where flowers rest dignified heads

their stamens crooked and yellow

as saffron rice after steaming

resting their heavy heads     weighed down

and trembling in a fluctuating wind

these scars of memory that reappear

denying all possibility of sleep

cutting through time to deliver images

of a wrist enveloped in silver bracelets

as the lingering lights go out     one by one

as a bird flashes across the firmament

clouds still waterlogged

from the morning’s rain.

BIO: Paul Ilechko is the author of “Post Moby” (Sheila-Na-Gig, 2026) and “Fragmentation and Volta” (Gnashing Teeth, 2025). His work has also appeared in many journals, including The Bennington Review, Bear Review, Atlanta Review, Permafrost, and Laurel Review. He reads for Marrow Magazine.