One Poem by Alec Solomita

 

Self-Serving Self Portrait

 

This ain’t a complaint.

I’m not the grousing type

(ask anyone).

But I have, let’s face it,

had some kind of life!

Been depressed a lot,

before everyone was;

 

Now, of course,

these days of strife

touch almost all of us.

 

Yet there also have been boons.

Life has its wonders:

The ocean, sex,

sausage pizza. I allow

that it’s not all bad but

I would, even very young

fall frequently into

the abyss so many are

now so familiar with:

Why get out of bed?

Why look for work?

Why not get wrecked?

 

A quick summary of me:

tough teenage years,

lazy, weedy twenties,

frightened thirties.

Then things looked up:

good college, good job,

good woman. Vermont.

 

Then, of course, things

looked down, as they tend

to do with time:

lost job, lost woman,

Rhode Island.

 

Fear of death, or longing for it,

what’s the dif?

It’s all part of the plan.

 

As my ex-boss Hyman

(“Hy?” “Hi.”)

used to say from the height

of his forklift

when I worked

at fifteen

in a warehouse full of

Clairol products,

“Am I right or am I right?”

 

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. He's working on another.