« Mike Keshigian » SWEET PLEASURE Sweet little chocolate in the candy shop, I gave your brown shell a bite when no one saw, took your creamy filling for a ride in my mouth, on my tongue to all those secret places where I might sense the nuance of your flavored butter breath. As you awakened my palate, I tried to appear innocent from the guilty pleasure your confectionary sin availed, greeting the clerk with a tight lipped smile as I perused the display with you discreetly perched behind my teeth, slowly melting away. IN THE STARS They suspend like handfuls of confetti thrown from the windows that surround Times Square on New Year's Eve, clusters that never seem to move, just shocking the sky when they suddenly appear. Like dazed fireflies, they twist in darkness and blink when their momentum abates so we might glance a fading streak before their lights go out, which is why we lean against buildings and always look up, why we sneak a peek through the moon roof when traffic stalls our progress, why the affluent and the homeless stare at the sky, because solace and hope line the dark ceiling and the lamps that bring the night to life, hide answers to the dreams that evaporate on our pillows. Mike Keshigian's poems have appeared in Sahara, Bellowing Ark, ByLine Magazine, Fairfield Review, Red River Review, Sierra Nevada College Review and numerous other online and written journals. He has had 3 chapbooks published and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. He is a musician and educator, performing and teaching on the collegiate level in the Boston.