November 2020
Bio Note: I am an award winning editor, publisher and poet. I am the driving force behind BlazeVOX, a small
press located in Buffalo, NY and was named by the Huffington Post as one of the Top 200 Advocates for American Poetry. I am
the author many books of poetry. I live in Kenmore, NY with my wife and two beloved cats.
Ionian Scales Softly
My girl waits for me in chapter ten.
From the first few pages
My heart longs for her.
We met once on the docks
As I sailed away from port.
We were set upon by pirates
Almost immediately. I was left alive
But my crew were slaughtered.
I fought to stay alive,
To return home to her.
In chapter eleven, my girl becomes my wife.
We are happy until the wedding is over.
We purchase a clean home. Each night I cook a nice meal.
Enjoy calm every day, as if we relive echoes of
Sundays and Tuesdays and Fridays.
There is a blur that happens in repetition.
Her newspaper crinkles
As I ask her for the crossword.
She has never forgiven me
For giving her such a dullness
As the life we lead in the summer home.
What is an eleven letter word for life without pirates, she asks?
A seventeen letter word for freedom from fighting?
A four-letter word for life without battle?
A seven-letter word for unstruggle?
A twenty-six lettered word, with two hyphens, for freedom from the next triumph?
In the sunrise, our book closes
As a guitar plays Ionian scales softly.
©2020 Geoffrey Gatza
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