May 2021
Bio Note: I’m a retired professor of Spanish, but I’ve had a checkered career. I’ve experienced
life on the high seas and in various ports of call, and have worked as sales/production liaison for the export
department of a liquor manufacturer. My poetry writing is something I’ve been doing only in the last ten years
and have been published in Baily’s Beads, Crossways Literary Magazine (Ireland), The Fictional Café and
others in the U.S. and abroad. Writing poetry can be a lonesome occupation. I’m interested in Verse-Virtual
as a connection to other poets.
Subterranean Portrait
His back to the door of the subway car,
The gaunt old man stands
Stoically,
His faded tie knotted
Scrupulously,
His weary blue suit hanging
Courageously,
Drooping with fatigue,
On his spare but erect frame.
His jaw freshly shaven,
meticulously,
He awaits his stop
Patiently.
Knobby knuckles,
Veins swelling bluishly,
From years of arduous labor,
With a tenacious grip on life,
His sinewy hands clutch
The black plastic handle
Of a black umbrella.
Pale blue eyes
Gaze
Tranquilly, serenely,
With resignation,
From behind spectacles,
Unperturbedly.
They gaze
Beyond me,
Beyond all passengers,
Beyond ads for candy bars,
Toothpaste and chewing gum,
Beyond…
Just beyond.
©2021 Clark Zlotchew
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL