My Orchard, My Orphanage, etc.

The following three poems will be published in Kutztown University's 2012 Shoofly literary magazine.

2001

High school graduation

Head higher than the skies

Ignoring what they told you

“You’ll see it—time just flies”

First Madonna concert

Drank a box of wine

Lost my keys and dignity

While standing in the line

Acura Integra

Black with shiny rims

Drove it off Old Miller’s Bridge

and nearly severed limbs

Last time I could speak that name

The highway stole her light

I stood over her body

Her blood still seems so bright

Tried so hard to say goodbye

She lives inside my head

Reminding me of what I’ve done—

that one day

I’ll be dead

My Orchard, My Orphanage

Seventeen weeping apple trees

Scattered against a crisp gray sky,

Overgrown limbs fallen slovenly on the ground.

Their fruit gone to waste—

A stinking rot pile of red and brown.

“Your roots are like my own,” I whisper,

“Planted firm in unsteady earth.”

The wind allows each branch to sigh,

Crackling leaves rustle in chorus.

Seventeen weeping boys and girls

Scattered across a field at dusk,

Assembling for the annual St. Anne’s Orphanage photo.

Their minds gone to waste—

A medicated pile of wasted dreams and forgotten hope.

“Your tears are like my own,” I whisper,

“Born of fear, mistrust, and envy.”

Their brains allow their necks to turn.

The shutter clicks our flashbulb darkness.

Overweight, Effeminate Boy

Overweight

effeminate boy

Paint your toes and cry

Hide your face

as they walk past

Don’t look them in the eye

I see you standing

by the pool

Only mirror you go near

I watch your knees

snap like boards

Broken from your fear

Your beauty’s simply

buried deep

So far that they can’t see

Those brilliant colors

shining bright

Your far-off galaxy

Overweight

effeminate boy

It’s freeing when you cry

Close your eyes

kill the pain

You’ll soar before you die

I’ll take you by the hand

old friend

I’ll tell you all I know

Overweight

effeminate boy

My fourteen-year-old Joe