Midnight Lane Boutique features Todd Cirillo

Todd Cirillo is co-founder and editor of Six Ft. Swells Press. His poems have appeared in numerous national and international literary journals, magazines and cocktail napkins everywhere. His books include ROXY (R.L. Crow Publications, 2003), Everybody Knows the Dice are Loaded (Rattlesnake Press, 2006), This Troubled Heart(Lummox Press, 2010), Sucker’s Paradise (Six Ft. Swells Press, 2012), and Sexy Devils (Epic Rites Press, 2016), among others. Todd lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, and can be found at afterhourspoetry.com or epicrites.org.

*

In Complete Agreement

She stood me up
on a Sunday.
On Monday
she sent me a text
saying she
ended up getting drunk
with an old boyfriend
but she was sorry
and it would never
happen again.

I looked at my phone
in complete agreement
with her
as I
hit
delete.

*

Nothing Wasted

I am using the last
of your shampoo.
I spent the .84 cents
left on the desk
where there once stood
a vase with yellow flowers.
I am playing
the Pink Floyd album
you forgot.
I gave the leftover
pack of cigarettes
to the first
homeless person
I saw.

Instead of throwing
it all away
I thought,
why waste it.

There has been enough
of that already.

*

Premonition

Everyone was dancing—
except you.
It was supposed
to be a good time.
You and I
and a thousand
other lovers
under the moon,
listening
to the Rebirth Brass Band
sing from the stage,
“I used to love her
but it’s all over now.”

I went and ordered
two more beers,
thinking
that might loosen
the evening.
You did not want another.
“Two for me then,”
I thought out loud,
and smiling
up at the white moon
felt the breeze
come off the river
and watched the girls’ dresses
rise as they twirled.

I continued to dance
and make friends
with those around us,
our space on the lawn
getting smaller and smaller.
You had no idea
what was coming,

but I sure did.

*

All Hail! Todd Cirillo’s latest collection, Burning the Evidence (2017), is available via Epic Rites Press.* Please, click on the cover image below to learn more . . .

*Cover photo by Matt Amott; cover design by Julie Valin.