One Poem by Alec Solomita

 

Lunch Poem

 

Here’s kind of a weird thing.

I was reading a poem by Charles

Simic called “Boredom”

 

A workshop instructor I had once

[why the italic? why that line break?]

said that Frank O’Hara didn’t revise.

(Pretty sure that’s the common wisdom

but I have my doubts. Might be wrong,

and the last thing I want to do is look

it up.) So this poem of Simic’s made me

think about boredom. And it occurred

to me after a couple of seconds, Christ!

I’m not bored anymore. Ever.

 

And that, my friend, is not brag just fact.

Not at all brag, maybe some kind of admission

about the growing dearth (if dearth can strictly

speaking grow [of course it can]) in an older man’s

not brain so much as sensibility or something like.

 

I don’t get bored anymore. (Start with that

says the instructor, get rid of all the self-

serving [why a hyphen? why this line break?]

shit that precedes it. Listen to the sentence!

Simple, intriguing: I don’t get bored anymore.)

 

I don’t get bored anymore.

I get everything else

but not bored. I know that

that’s significant to those who

think things are significant

(and I’m not saying things

aren’t significant, some

things don’t need saying)

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,” came out last spring.