September 2015
I probably started writing because nobody I knew was talking about the things I was feeling and thinking. Mostly my poems are attempts at finding some sort of connection on a different level—and I think that’s what I am still trying to do. If you want to check out more of my work, my books include ONE WISH LEFT with Pavement Saw Press and THE LAST LIE with New York Quarterly Books. UNTIL THE LAST LIGHT LEAVES which focuses on my relationship with a an ex-girlfriend’s autistic son and my more than 30 years managing group homes for the developmentally disabled is forthcoming with NYQ Books.
Daylight Savings
When I climb out
of the subway, the sun
still sits in the sky. I take
the long way home, cut
through the park. Boom
boxes beat hip hop
and the basketball courts
are jammed with brothers
running full out. I curl
my fingers around fence
links, taste sweat
wetting my lips, whisper
"I got next." Girls straddle
benches, stand in circles
waving cigarettes, heads
flung back, flicking smoke
signals. A grandfather
underhands a fat whiffle ball.
The little kid swings, hits
a humpbacked fly. I trot
a few steps, catch it
over my shoulder like Mays
in '54. I grab a slice
with extra cheese. Squeeze
melons, mangos, nectarines.
Pick up laundry and unlock
my mail box. Home. One
more hour of light to kill
remembering my father died
February first, that the last
time I slept with a woman
was nearly seven months ago
in Corrales, New Mexico
and I didn't love
one thing about her.
-previously published in Pearl
©2015 Tony Gloeggler