Patrick Roche

ALT Voicemail Poems winter 2025 Text places against a wintry backdrop with snow

ALT “Ganymede” by Patrick Roche as it appears in Voicemail Poems winter 2025 issue Poem text: Eagle-winged cock on my phone. I joined the apps not earlier than I was allowed to, but earlier than I should have. A man, twice of me – in age, in size, in audacity – stretches a talon through the screen: Sweet boy. Soft skin. Baby calf. Milk trough. Can I touch? Can I smell? Can I taste? Are you really only 100 lbs? That’s so hot. Hellenic ideal: men whose beards could scrape the wool from a lamb’s back, wanting to plaster me upon the hard bed-frame scene circling an urn. Terra cotta raptor of the Father-God. Hands, a fire on my thigh on the subway. Hands, cracking open the hide on the small of my back in the gay bar. Hands, flying from the messages. Hands, twine around the waist, across the mouth. Hands, a god lifting me to a mountain, casting me in bronze to be a boy until bled dry. To be a stain of nectar on a chin. To be a cup overflowing: a cold, metal well from which to drink.

ALT The Peter Paul Rubens painting depicting Ganymede being abducted by the eagle

ALT Promotional image with the following info: Button Poetry Presents Patrick Roche & Rachel Wiley Thursday January 30, 2025 3:00 PM Eastern Time / 2:00 PM Central Time Facebook Live Stream The flyer includes images of Patrick Roche and Rachel Wiley, with their respective books shown above them: A Socially Acceptable Breakdown above Roche Revenge Body above Wiley

ALT An image from Button Poetry promoting Patrick Roche Livestream Tuesday 7:00pm CT Jan 28 Tune in on FB Patrick is seated on a wooden crate. He has paper wings on his back and is looking upward. There is also an image of Patrick’s book, A Socially Acceptable Breakdown