Four Poems by Joseph A Farina

 

the luster of rust

in the late autumn afternoon

stretching out the short walk home

after school, under canopies of maples

their crowns thinning in the winds

kicking horse chestnuts from lawns

onto the greying asphalt of the street

the haze above the foundry pale

it's poison then unknown

floated like ragged sails surrounding us

it's smell of wet rusted iron persistent

until dispersed on gusts of wind and sunlight

returning as caustic drops over night

painting our porches with oxidized dust

adding yet another legendary layer

of our youth upon this street

night cruise

the back streets are alive to-night

with ghosts i need

as much as they need me

shadows of those i knew

shadows of those i didn’t.

lost amid broken boulevards

rusting cars renew themselves.

drive- in’s reappear.

my radio permanently dialled

to Sirius’s 60's on 6,

plays continually

the soundtrack of my desperate years.

alleyways reveal my unrequited lovers

their hands clutching wilted prom corsages

given to them with broken promises,

their eyes offering me a different ending

if only they could sit beside me

in my cherry ride tonight

seduced by Cherish and Unchained Melody

awkward first kisses

the ritual of hand and breast

finally fulfilled..

the lonely want

i would return to that touch

that shared the better light

and threw away indifference

before the ache of turning numb

before the muting of the heart

i would rehear my roaring soul

guilty of what it wants

breaking into my guarded thoughts

each perfect melancholic morning

travelling back to its source

that touch: intense, buried, enduring

altering my origin to an intimate perfection

allied our miseries in union, in madness

without the chance of returning

exiled from the realities of our arms

souvenir

Wine bottle

weeps wax ,

its warm taste

long decanted

On our sofa,

we flip through photographs

of Tuscan hills and venetian lagoons ,

skies a soft blue,

eyes alive, bottle full

Joseph A Farina - is a retired lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. He is an award winning poet, internationally published in Europe and Middle East. Published in Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, Ascent, Subterranean Blue and in The Tower Poetry Magazine, Inscribed, The Windsor Review, Boxcar Poetry Revue, his work also appears in the anthologies Sweet Lemons: Writings with a Sicilian Accent, Canadian Italians at Table, Witness and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century. Published in U.S. magazines Mobius, Pyramid Arts, Arabesques, Fiele-Festa, Philadelphia Poets and Memoir and in Silver Birch Press Series. He has had two books of poetry published— The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street and an E-book Sunsets in Black and White and his latest book, The beach, the street and everything in between.