Skip to content

The library will open at 10:00am on Tuesday, November 26. We will be closing at 3:00pm on Wednesday, November 27 and will be closed all day on Thursday, November 28.

Today's Hours:
The library is open today from 9am - 9pm

Day 15: Humpty Dumpty by Spencer Reece

Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language. 

Humpty Dumpty

by Spencer Reece
for Mark Wunderlich
Iowa
in my
owl-eye
I crack

delicate
Acropolis
Io
fleeing

Wisconsin
Fabergé
Easter
egg

off
the Empire
State
I go I

wow
my hoi polloi
my yolk
my holy

water
I am
the town
of Santiago

I am
a Stonewall
mirror ball
a million

crushed
shards
of Christ
after

the war
Picasso
never
returned

to Spain


Copyright © 2022 by Spencer Reece. Originally published on Queer Poem-a-Day, June 2022.


About the Author

Author headshotSpencer Reece is the author of The Clerk’s Tale and The Road to Emmaus, long-listed for the National Book Award. In 2017 he edited, Counting Time Like People Count Stars: Poetry by the Girls of Our Little Roses. The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Poet’s Memoir and All The Beauty Still Left: A Poet’s Painted Book of Hours arrived in 2021. He has worked as an Episcopal priest in Honduras, Spain, and New York City.

Queer Poem a Day graphic

Queer Poem a Day


Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this second year of our series is the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34, by Karol Szymanowski, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.

Deerfield Public Library

Install Deerfield Public Library

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap then “Add to Home Screen”

Accessibility Toolbar