Two Poems by Steve Deutsch

 

The Mercury

 

will peak

at -2 today.

Declaring a holiday,

we let the kids

sleep in,

take coffee 

in the toasty kitchen,

and stare out

frost-crazed

windows

willing something,

anything, to motion.

 

When they wake

we will make  

a big breakfast,

watch road-runner 

cartoons,

and play 

for the ping-pong

championship

of the world.

 

I remember 

my grandmother

let me sleep in one day,

not caring if I missed school—

my parents off at work

after their bone chilling walk

and wait for the elevated.

 

I woke that glorious day

to matzoh brei

and coffee

and we continued 

our game 

of 500 Rummy—

keeping score 

with the rigor

of monks 

recording events

during the dark ages.

 

As we settle in 

to February,

what wouldn’t 

we give

for something special—

for a spot of colour,

brighter than the sad

and distant sun,

to enliven lives 

as bone white

as the bleached

landscape.

 

 

Slipping Away

 

Last week,

I thought I saw

you board 

the uptown bus

I shouted and waved—

just another lunatic 

flapping his wings 

on the avenue.

 

I remember how we met,

but not how we lost touch.

 

Isn’t that the way of it?

 

At eight

I got a kite

for my birthday 

and flying it

began to learn 

the rhythm of its motion—

updraft and downdraft,

when just for a second

my attention drifted

and the kite

flew off

untethered

in the wind.

Steve Deutsch has been widely published both on line and in print. Steve was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. He is poetry editor for Centered Magazine. His Chapbook, Perhaps You Can, was published in 2019 by Kelsay Press. His full length book, Persistence of Memory was published in 2020 by Kelsay, Steve’s third book of poetry, Going, Going, Gone, was published in November 2021.