Chris Tonelli

MISTAKES

When the expression of desire

     is new,

we make the same mistakes

a candidate makes.

We listen to them

over and over.

It’s a

clever therapy;

it’s a

tangible,

objective fairness.

The lawn mower

is a violent

omnivore;

my son says grass

for the first time.

Chris Tonelli works in the Libraries at NC State and co-owns So & So Books in downtown Raleigh, where he lives with his wife, Allison, and their two kids, Miles and Vera. He is a founding editor of the independent poetry press, Birds, LLC, and he curates the So & So Series and edits So & So Magazine. His first full-length collection is The Trees Around (Birds, LLC). "Mistakes" will appear in is his fifth chapbook, Increment, forthcoming from Rye House Press.