So much oxygen for one small planet
What if she wears the black shirt and the
crimson lipstick
& says it’s time to go to Yonkers.
Do you go?
•
the asteroid, spinning
in space
the potato on the kitchen table
as evening comes
•
Yes, yes I will go with you
__________________________________________
Uh-oh cops
Uh-oh, under
pure white pear
blossoms
(cops!)
__________________________________________
all this time Ellen
’s
manic, determined
calling Bill 17 times in an hour
you remember Bill, grey, triple by-pass, movies
and Bill said as how the priest
was giving a talk on the Ignatian Prayers
a kind of Catholic 500 year old self-help manual and
how he had just heard Ellen got beat up by a guy
in a wheelchair
and how in The Brothers K
in the chapter “Rebellions” there are these Ivan-people
like Ellen
for whom God shows no mercy in life
troubled and
thrown out people, broken and tortured
people
and the Priest got pissed off, the feathers on the back of his neck stood out
but if you think about Ellen, or Big Joe who paces and
anger builds up and
the voices
in his head
or Lorraine and Rafael
cutting each other up with bottles homeless
out of shopping carts
together on the street
and Rafael walking into the clothing room
and coming out
looking really good
and so this notion of an enclosed harmony to the Universe
a Frank Capra caring God
a merciful God, has Bill shaking his head
remember
he says, when I had that apartment across from the diner
and this fat guy came in, ordered
a plate of fries and sat there at the counter
eating them one by one, all by himself
__________________________________________
Sam Turner met his wife while volunteering at The Catholic Worker, NYC. A former ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers Union) member, and volunteer with Friends of the Farmworkers, he has participated in anti-war marches, and arts for peace events. He has led poetry workshops at the New York Public Library and the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music. A professional gardener with two children, Sam has won the Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Poetry Award (1998, 2000, 2003 and 2010), the William C. Woolfson Award for Literary Excellence (1998), and the SUNY McIllwain Award for Poetry (1983). Published in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Little Magazine, Nadir.
