Five Poems by Peter J. Dellolio

 

During Vision 

 

 

 

The yellow taxi passes 

slowly.  Its glowing bulk 

suggests an imaginary connection between 

the burning head of 

the passenger’s cigarette and that array of enormous 

ships.  So many still, large vessels 

sleepily secured to the harbour by 

muscular, myriad shadows.  These 

dense layers of darkness 

cannot halt the stream of 

bright circular lights suspended along the 

thoroughfare.  They can be glimpsed, fleetingly, 

through the taxi window.  This observation 

occurs in spite of the fact that the 

quiet, frozen heaviness of the ships, is 

so unlike the threadbare fragility of 

the nearly floating 

vehicle. 

 

The taxi increases its speed and 

he looks through the window for a 

second time. 

 

 

 

 

Empty Bag 

 

 

Light 

morning wind with sweeping musical lilt lifts a 

discarded bag from 

the wet gutter to the narrow ledge of stone church 

        windows 

coldly alike 

symmetrically arranged 

 

cylindrical shape 

Gothic complication 

strictly chiselled 

limestone clerestory 

where the 

floating 

  thing lands 

and there’s an oily black biretta-shaped 

stain on its 

puffy paper face.

 

 

 

Encore 

 

The bottom of the 

      sea is 

      a costume 

party where 

      the guests 

     hidden from 

     human light under ocean 

     spotlights dance 

     a performance of 

colours constantly 

   exchanged until 

     the reds of crabs 

become the blues 

   of coral all 

     movements phantom 

on this 

baroque 

wet 

stage.  

 

 

The Poacher

 

Swooping certainty 

piercing wings  

command of flight 

precision of 

landing capture of limp carcass blanched 

overtaken underbelly the 

  crab a prisoner of 

the hunting beak 

this conquering gull is cheated a 

squawking baleful bitter and protracted when 

   another bird intercepts the 

   catch.  

 

In secrecy it was watching. 

 

  Such an animated stride 

  as if to say 

    This is mine now!  

  The swagger of the beak as 

  it proudly trots away. 

  The authority!  The aggression! 

 

After wolfing down the last of the meat the snatcher darts its head, 

glancing 

everywhere.  

 

Fear’s Playground 

 

Creaking 

musty 

wood cart 

loud rolling 

crack! 

black doors bang after 

red power lever pulled 

as the journey 

     begins the zigzag 

       angles 

sharp stops and 

    turns each 

vision fixed an illuminated 

 tableaux 

 gorilla spiders dissection 

table electric 

chair scorpions guillotine 

screams from the 

two 

little girls missing 

       most of it 

eyes half-open 

finally safety of 

daylight when 

the cart smacks against 

    the exit 

    bored operator 

    lifting a sandwich 

to his lips 

yanks the switch 

again for the 

next descent 

into fear’s playground.

Peter J. Dellolio - Born 1956 New York City. Went to Nazareth High School and New York University. Graduated 1978: BA Cinema Studies; BFA Film Production. Poetry, fiction, short plays, art work, and critical essays published in literary magazines and journals: Bridging the Waters Volume II, The Midwest Quarterly, AURA Literary Arts Review, Revista Acolada, Conceit Magazine, Amulet Magazine, The Journal Magazine # 68, Crab Creek Review, Shoe Music Press/Brief Wilderness, W-Poesis, New Note Poetry, Rundelania, Sortes Magazine, The Critical Flame, Ephemeral Elegies, Fleas On the Dog, The Decadent Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, Literary Heist, Maryland Literary Review, Ranger Magazine, Synchronized Chaos Journal, Avant Appal[achia] Journal, Time Of Singing/The Blue Collar Artist, Rose City Sisters, October Hill Magazine, The Big Windows Review, Mad Swirl, Xavier Review, Roadrunner Literary Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Northwest Indiana Literary Journal.

Poetry collections “A Box Of Crazy Toys” published 2018 by Xenos Books/Chelsea Editions; “Bloodstream Is An Illusion Of Rubies Counting Fireplaces” published February 2023 and “Roller Coasters Made Of Dream Space” published November 2023 by Cyberwit/Rochak Publishing. Chapters from his critical study of Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock’s Cinematic World: Shocks of Perception and the Collapse of the Rational) published in The Midwest Quarterly Literature/Film Quarterly, Kinema, Flickhead, and North Dakota Quarterly since 2006. Dramatika Press published a volume of his one-act plays in 1983. From this collection, The Seeker appeared in an issue of Collages & Bricolages and Stopping On One’s Way was recently published in Synchronized Chaos Journal. Contributing editor for NYArts Magazine, writing art and film reviews; also wrote monographs on several new artists. Co-Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Artscape2000, a prestigious, award-winning, art e-zine. Taught poetry and art for LEAP. He is an artist himself: https://www.saatchiart.com/peterdellolio.com. His paintings and 3D works offer abstract images of famous people in all walks of life who have died tragically at a young age. He lives in Brooklyn.