One Fine Poem by Elizabeth Marino

 

SWEET TART

You working?

A tall drink of water

Leather and spider lashes

The cedar casts its long shadow

over the entranceway and sidewalk

Yellow moon, tepid August night

Across the street, tourists in                               pantsuits laugh.

Right now? I reply

Squinting through lithium fog.

A steady glance to the street, then           to me

A full look

They rumble: Child, Child

Exits, stage left.

Elizabeth Marino is a Chicago poet, educator, and performer. Her full-length collection Asylum (Vagabond, 2020) includes a Pushcart Prize nominated poem and prose memoir piece. Her chapbooks are Ceremonies (dancing girl press) and Debris (Puddin'head Press). Her poems will appear in the forthcoming anthologies Reimagining America (Vagabond, 2022) and Play (Outrider Press annual, 2022). Recent poetry publications include sPARKLE + bLINK #112/Quiet Lightening (print chap and virtual literary mixtape) and Building Socialism Vol. 2: Fighting Fascism, the Revolutionary Poets Brigade's 2021 print annual.