One Poem by Alec Solomita

 

Self Help  

 

About halfway through

your dying, you came up

with theories of your own.

It was around the time

you found an old purse:

Recipes, receipts, lint,

and observed

“This is when I was a person.”

 

Spilling coffee again, you wondered,

“Why can’t they go in and get rid

of the bodies in my brain.”

Then you had some suggestions of your own.

 

“Maybe if I go on a swing. That might help.

A swing, like in a playground? Yes, all that

swinging, You know, might help?”

“We can do that,” I say. And we can.

Seventy-eight years old, a hundred forty pounds.

I guess we can do that.

 

“Or if I stand on my head?”

“Not sure about that, dear,

maybe touch your toes instead.”

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.