If Januarians who dream of June
awake on Ides with centrophobic stress,
while scientists see over Saturn’s moon
a future compulsively to obsess,
then surely some contemporary snake
has made the apple of the present moot:
as if we receive a gingerbread cake
we decline to cut cause it’s all dried fruit!
or we’re those fans who used to stalk Greta Garbo
outside Sutton Place in hopes she would play
her last great scene with us–while the hobo
round the corner earned Ninotchka’s smile each day.
Why imagine a ruby in rhinestone
or trail the scents of the perfect cologne?
—
A native New Yorker, James Penha has lived for the past twenty years in Indonesia. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and in poetry. No Bones to Carry, a volume of his poetry, the 2007 New Sins Press Editors’ Choice Award. Penha edits The New Verse News, an online journal of current-events poetry.
The Zingara Project 