Glen Armstrong

Commencement Speech

Like big dogs
with unpronounceable names,
we will obey no one.

We will never be trusted
with gasoline,
magazines or money.

Our arms and legs
will grow heavy
but surprising

-ly precise
and reflect light
just like the moon.

Helium

White socks with black shoes.
I want more.

I order egg
salad at the deli.

White belly at the beach
with confusion

and hair.
I need to be somewhere.

Out of the sun
like helium.

And somewhere else.
Out on a limb,

perhaps, like a crab-
apple blossom.

Glen Armstrong (he/him) holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters. His latest book is Night School: Selected Early Poems.