Three Poems by Alec Solomita

 

Tricks of Memory

 

I don’t recall the Celsius Fahrenheit ratio

but I am familiar with the rake of sorrow

and a little with breath-stealing joy.

I don’t know the status

of Schrödinger’s cat, but I knew

a bad boy once who threw

a kitten against a ceiling, killing it.

My little Latin and less Greek have flown

but I will never forget my first taste

of a woman’s briny center.

 

 

Bye Bye Baby

 

It seems you’re gone for good this time,

empty shelves, empty drawers, absent

suitcase, absent you. The woodwind chimes

you doted on are just an added torment;

their ringing chills me to my bones.

I’ll tear them down, you knew I would;

and I’ll throw away your pretty stones,

at you, at you, I wish I could!

Instead I’ll eat some edibles

and drink some Short Path whiskey,

settle down on my pillowed bed

and think about the darkling sky,

the short cold day a faithless friend

who leaves me here too tired to sigh.

 

 

I Take It Hard

 

I take it hard, this yard, this driveway,

this (I hate the word) condo.

What am I doing here?

The driveway is a luge track, the yard is rigid

with old snow. By day my heart is coated with ice,

but later, under the long night’s weight,

the thin ice gives, trading water for air.

It’s a slow and awful drowning, a silent still

affair, supine and chill with nothing’s nearness.

What makes the luge drive on so fast?

Alec Solomita is a writer and artist working in the Boston (USA) area. His fiction has appeared in the Southwest Review, The Mississippi Review, Southword Journal, and Peacock, among other publications. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal. His poetry has appeared in Poetica, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Litbreak, Driftwood Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Galway Review, The Lake, and elsewhere, including several anthologies. His photographs and drawings can be found in Convivium, Fatal Flaw, Young Ravens Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, and other publications. He took the cover photo and designed the cover of his poetry chapbook, “Do Not Forsake Me,” which was published in 2017. His full-length poetry book “Hard To Be a Hero,” will be coming out in spring of next year.