Closer. I moved, like a warbler
“In Month Five of COVID Distancing from My Partner” – Oyster River Pages
slowly, then suddenly, the way / a person comes to accept an inconvenient truth
“I Think of Gin & Limes on Highway 17” – Sand Hills
Outside Coalinga, I think of my own mother
“Driving South on I-5 from Sacramento Back to Bullhead City” – Sand Hills
And each evening, after quitting time, they must’ve gone / home and died. How else could they have stilled themselves / enough to fall into another morning?
“Livin’ It” – The Rising Phoenix Review
it’s no surprise to us that three Americans hold the record for / farthest distance from their mothers’ wombs.
“There’s More Past Now Than Ever” – The Rising Phoenix Review
America, by now I thought / I’d know one millionaire, at least, ‘cause I’ve seen enough bootstrap-pulling // to pull whole ghettos out of crab grass and chain link…
“I Should Know a Millionaire” – New Ohio Review Online
When it’s quiet, I know / somethin’ aint right.
“Echolocation” – Aquifer: The Florida Review Online
facts only tell us / half of every story, and never / the half we need.
“Proof” – Aquifer: The Florida Review Online
On the long drive back from the Carson River,
“Simple Future” – 2017 Ernesto Trejo Graduate Poetry Prize Winner
you tell me again what will happen when you die.
Other Publications & HONORS
”At the Mandatory Active-Shooter Training” – Jabberwock Review Vol. 42, No. 1”
The Mad Child-King Sleeps Late” & “What Really Happened” – Chestnut Review Vol. 2, No. 2
“Involuntary Hold” – Sierra Nevada Review – Vol. 28
“Elegy” – The Southampton Review – Vol. 13, Issue 25
“To the Poet Mia Barraza Martinez” – Flies, Cockroaches & Poets – Spring 2018
“After Reading Reports from a Wildfire…” – Tahoma Literary Review – Issue 25
“My Father’s Hands” – Red Cedar Review – Vol. 47
“Gin” – Sugar House Review – 4.1 Spring 2012
Involuntary Hold – Finalist for 2020 Rising Writer Contest
Erik Wilbur 