Dan Sicoli

the meaning of now

so there aren’t decisions or answers
but there’s eggs so i fry up a cheese omelet
pour her a cup of amnesty

she’s too hypnotized by the companion
tuned to the same station and
as always the aroma fails to distract her

this moment now
is yesterday’s moment here
and there are signs to obey

she either will eat or not
she will either cooperate or fuss
i will show patience or not

the day dwindles
the now is crushing down
and swallowing us whole

of our enamored selves

what we endeavor
to call legend

those that linger in the given hour
to outlast a flick of skirt
a tuft of thinning hair
a malignant growth

we’d wrap
our fingers and capture
all there is to take

endure the barricade
or rip the lining from the streets
to reveal the indigenous skeleton

until we can’t keep up
and a butterfly becomes
a wrecking ball

 

Dan Sicoli, an editor with Slipstream, has a new collection, Slag Alley, out from Ethel Zine Press. A three-time Pushcart nominee, he’s placed poems with Big Windows Review, dadakuku, Hobo Camp Review, Home Planet News, Hood of Bone, Steam Ticket, Santa Barbara Literary Journal, and Trampoline, among many others. Late summers he oven dries homegrown San Marzano tomatoes. <www.pw.org/directory/writers/dan_sicoli