poems by aaron delee

Questions Are Keys 

  for Terry Gross

Questions are keys, turning A into B;
when this woman asks on air, she deceives
with honest inquiry into tiny locks,
moving them with a silvered, soothing voice
and sounding the clink of metallic joints
made of art, made with points well played.

You have something to say behind the door
and past the frame of simple conversation
where the ring she carries, comes, pricks, expands
investigation of what you contain;
when this woman asks questions, she feigns

since she already knows which way you'll sway.

--




Selfie: The Size of the Opportunity


Waste as I am wont, there went a week-end
where the phone followed me into the bath
again. Babbling, I lather, rinse, re-send.

Stranger-men have asked me questions, to bend
over, see where I am.  Tramping a path,
waste as I am wont, there went a week-end.

Outside, a couple walks by, kids pretend
to be X-men; one is a telepath.
Again, babbling, I lather, rinse, re-send.

No moving mouths have come to meet or spend
the afternoon with me.  Lonely like Plath,
waste as I am wont, there went a week-end.

Pasting recycled phrasings that I’ve penned,
Into? You looking? the phone knows my wrath
again. Babbling, I lather, rinse, re-send.

Coffee, lunch, dinner, and the sun descends
How many have passed? I’m no good at math.
Waste as I am wont, there went a week-end
again. Babbling, I lather, rinse, re-send.

"Questions Are Keys" first appeared with VOX3 Collective

Aaron DeLee graduated from Northwestern University with an MFA in Creative Writing in 2013. His poems have appeared in Court Green, Assaracus, Rougarou, and various other publications. When he’s not writing, or in the bathtub, he’s often running along the shore of Lake Michigan.