Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday.

Masquerade

The newest math
subtraction;
less is less;
square root
of nothing
nothing.

Currency
too cryptic
to unravel
in the dwindled
metropolis.

Mask that frames
an oval face:
ellipse eclipsed
by cloud. Pause
pushed twice.

Outside,
the north star’s
bright despite
the vapor that
settles over us,
holds our locked
jaws tight.

Wyn Cooper has published five books of poems, including, most recently, Mars Poetica. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Poetry, as well as in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry. His poems have also been turned into songs by Sheryl Crow, David Broza, and Madison Smartt Bell. He lives in Vermont, and works as a freelance editor. Concord Free Press published his first novel, Way Out West, in 2022.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx