5 new poems by Todd Cirillo published at Bold Monkey! Poems for a great northerner, a beautiful Californian, the biggest loss of the New Year, and that force that keeps us trying. Enjoy. You can get Todd’s latest book, Burning the Evidence (Epic Rites Press, 2017) at Amazon.com
Gravitational Force
Even at this moment,
sitting across from you
working on our computers
separately and silently,
I can feel it,
like the tides
reaching for the moon,
an unseen force
pulling me
towards
you.
Still Drinking Alone
11:46a.m.
Monday.
Lunch at the Witt’s Inn.
I sit at the bar
the only other customer
orders another
shot of Samba
and a Budweiser.
Speaks out loud
to no one particular,
me I guess,
“I was born
in 1958,
in the Navy
we drank Ouzo
in Greece.
There’s been
a lot of hard living
between then
and now.”
At 11:48a.m.
on a Monday
I believe him.
Good Strategy
–for Wolfgang Carstens
There is a man
way up north,
beyond borders, plains,
and mountain ranges.
Without his beard he looks respectable
even—
harmless.
He has a wife,
mortgage, a snow blower,
more kids, bills, and responsibilities
than I will ever know.
I imagine him
at a mild-mannered job
maybe wearing a uniform,
stocking shelves.
A man working
peacefully within the system.
Volunteers for the graveyard shift
allowing the darker words
to form under the florescent glow
of aisle 9
but at home
when the seal is broken,
the fridge is stocked,
and he is firing on all cylinders,
he is a motherfucking Mack truck
of a man
barreling through every barricade—
poetic and otherwise,
smoking, drinking,
making videos
of himself reading
tough and unforgiving
poems he has written.
Until it is time to punch in once again.
I can only sit back
in awe and admiration
at his brutal strategy
of total retaliation
against
ALL of it.
(Epic Rites Broadside, 2017)
December 31st
Last year
we celebrated
your birthday
and the new year
together.
I told you
to blow out
the candle
and make a wish
over a
Mexican dessert
but not to tell me
what you wished for.
This year
we don’t
speak.
I like to tell myself
you wished for
a new car.
Thanks Sweetie
—for Annie Menebroker
“Hi sweetie”,
were the first words
Annie spoke to me
and that is all it took.
Over the years,
I would call her
my traveling partner.
She would laugh
and tell me she was a
traveling partner
who didn’t travel anywhere.
She would open our conversations with,
“love to see all your pictures
of the places you go,
things you see,
and hear the music
you get to dance to”.
In June,
we spoke by phone
and ended
as we always did,
Annie telling me,
“thanks for calling sweetie”
followed by my,
“love you Annie”.
except this time,
each of us added
a goodbye.
My traveling partner
provided me with more
stories than she would admit to
and material for the heart
to last my lifetime–
and perhaps that’s why
I live in New Orleans
where I get called “sweetie”
at least twice a day,
and everytime
I am reminded
of my traveling partner
so I always say,
“thanks sweetie” back,
just in case
I never told her enough
while she
was still
here.
Todd Cirillo loves good times and shiny moments. He lives in New Orleans so there are plenty of those to be found. His latest book is Burning the Evidence, (Epic Rites Press, 2017). He can be found at afterhourspoetry.com and youtube.
Todd Cirillo
Julie Valin
Matt Amott
After Hours Poetry 