Craig Shay

My Best Poem

I wrote my best poem
on the part of the canvas
Rothko forgot to paint –

It took me
twenty six years to craft,
and a moment
to unload –

as the police took me out
in handcuffs
I saw a young woman
wink at me
as she waited
on the precinct steps
in the rain –

tell her
it was not a mistake

so she will know
so she will know –

Craig Shay’s work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Poetry Niederngasse, The Smoking Poet, Zygote in my Coffee, Xanadu, Cassandra, and Machinery Press. His first poetry book In the Dead of Night is also forthcoming. He works with the developmentally disabled, and lives in Bay Shore, NY.