One Poem by Alec Solomita

 

In the Home

 

In the Home where my darling lies,

curtained away from her quiet peer

(whose name, I swear, is Mary Loony),

there is a cozy room on the first floor,

a small “library” where the patients

 

who are able, browse through several

shelves of magazines, romances,

“Cryptocurrency for Dummies,”

and verses by Joyce Kilmer,

the placebo of American poets —

 

a pretty paltry selection for visitors.

I bend in front of the books

with my darling sleeping in her wheelchair

beside me, and find a kids’ old science reader

full of colour, Rocks For You and Me.

 

As a child, I loved rocks and even now,

remember the three types: igneous,

sedimentary, metamorphic —

fire-born igneous, sedimentary,

“squashed from pressure.”

 

Metamorphic rocks begin as one kind,

but with time, stress, and heat

slowly change into a new type of rock.

While I linger over bright illustrations,

my darling groans a bit in her sad tilt.

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,” was just released by Kelsay Books.