Gregory Brooks

GREGORY BROOKS grew up in Orem, Utah, in the shade of honey locust trees. He is a student at Utah Valley University, studying psychology. His poetry has appeared in Touchstones, Warp & Weave, Utah Life Magazine, and Silver Birch Press. His forthcoming chapbook, The Music of the Dead, was a winner in the “30 Poems in 30 Days” contest by Salt Lake Community College. He loves reading poetry outside and sharing his excitement for verse with anyone willing to bend an ear.

No Man Can Serve Two Masters

Articles/Essays – Volume 56, No. 2

Enjoy this poem in audio version here. But my diagnosis says otherwise. Depression oozes under my door: the destroying angel visits:until I can’t get out of bed. One week later I’m waving bloody hyssop like glow sticks at a ravenudging sushi…

Throwing Up in the DC Temple

Articles/Essays – Volume 56, No. 2

Enjoy this poem in audio version here. Maybe it was envy that churned inside meas I looked around the room. Wonderingwhat healthy Mormons felt instead of fear. My body forced everyone to consider what it meant to be sick in…

Casual Violence in Sunday School

Articles/Essays – Volume 54, No. 3

John the Baptist was a hairy scorpionwho skittered out from the wildernessand began stinging folksuntil they saw the Holy Ghost. He molted like all prophets do,lived in caves, under rocks,until the predators found him—took his…

The Leper

Articles/Essays – Volume 54, No. 3

An armadillo dug up the grassin my parents’ yard last year— the kind that bounce buckshotoff their back and carry leprosy. If only I could do the same:materialize armor, lumber along. I could curl up…

Bi-Bestiary

Articles/Essays – Volume 54, No. 3

I suppose only the animals that paired offand shuffled up the rampsurvived the flood. So this Bishop, pointing outthat we would rather flirtthan marry—well, he built an Ark out of the treeslining the church property.He…