print version
download audioMICHAEL MCGRIFF
New Civilian
The new law
says you can abandon your child
in an emergency room,
no questions asked.
A young father
carries his sleeping boy
through the hospital doors.
Later, parked at the boat basin,
he takes a knife from his pocket,
cuts an unfiltered cigarette in two,
lights the longer half in his mouth.
He was a medic in the war.
In his basement are five bronze eagles
that once adorned the walls
of a dictator’s palace. 
The Cow
In February
New Civilian
Note Left for My Former Self
Figures in the Landscape
Reasons for Staying
The Watch