April 2017
John Allman
vikkat2@aol.com
vikkat2@aol.com
When is enough enough? I said a fond farewell to 33 years of teaching college English, including science fiction, poetry, American Literature, short story writing, and I garnered State University of New York’s Chancellor award for excellence in teaching. But there was still the fond hello to the poem, a tireless greeting, a tentative kiss on the cheek, a sweet breeze in my ear. “Wait, wait! I’m on my way. Don’t leave me now!"
Author's Note: I used to sun myself on the flat roof of the apartment house I lived in. Others, like Marge, did the same.
On the Roof
Natural signals: TV antennas, young trees,
strapped to chimneys; gulls wheeling through
radio waves like blanched crows, as you
lay down in fossil shadows from a lost sea,
impossible imprints in your back. Tar Beach:
the pop of punched metal, spray hissing into wind,
your first beer, and Marge tilted back, joined
to the ledge like a ship’s figurehead, within reach,
her wrist North, her elbow South, her knees
to the sun like fists rubbed smooth of knuckles.
Up here, you forgot the deep cry and dry suckle
of baby brothers, you felt your angers unfreeze.
You came to Marge the brown-armed boy from drought-
stricken villages, iceberg lettuce crisp in your mouth.
(This sonnet was first published in the journal Attic.)
On the Roof
Natural signals: TV antennas, young trees,
strapped to chimneys; gulls wheeling through
radio waves like blanched crows, as you
lay down in fossil shadows from a lost sea,
impossible imprints in your back. Tar Beach:
the pop of punched metal, spray hissing into wind,
your first beer, and Marge tilted back, joined
to the ledge like a ship’s figurehead, within reach,
her wrist North, her elbow South, her knees
to the sun like fists rubbed smooth of knuckles.
Up here, you forgot the deep cry and dry suckle
of baby brothers, you felt your angers unfreeze.
You came to Marge the brown-armed boy from drought-
stricken villages, iceberg lettuce crisp in your mouth.
(This sonnet was first published in the journal Attic.)
©2017 John Allman
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