Reconciliation and Distribution
Why the referencing?
I don’t want to get a zero
Why the problem with citation language?
because I want a net settlement
Why the affirmation?
because I want to pull the schedule.
Why consent to the distribution?
it’s the only way to merge with the field
Keenly Developed Moral Bankruptcy
I play with the Vikings,
they’ve just moved into the neighborhood,
this isn’t feudalism
and my roof isn’t thatched,
so I’ve got nothing to fear.
They scream more than I like
but they drink more
than the neighbors like,
which means we get along
and pretty soon
there’s enough mead in me to scream
just as loud as they do,
all of us berserking
between oil-stained parking garages
and empty shopping malls overgrown with weeds
Decent Work
I can write you poems about dragons,
I’m good at that, scaly creatures scaling the heights
Of clouds while blowing flames with smoke,
And if you so desire a knight to fight it,
I can add him too, in armor white, black, or green
I can write about a spaceship, lines on a planet
Discovered and colonized,
With astronauts and cosmonauts lionized
For their wonderful feats among the craters
Light-years from the time and day we call home
And if you want to get closer to earth,
I can pull out another flurry of references, allusions,
And other ornamentations to decorate
Verses about gangsters in pinstripes and fedoras,
Spewing bullets from their machine guns and cars
Just don’t ask me to write about myself,
Or about what it’s like to get up in the morning,
Heading in and out of trains,
And facing down a dusty computer screen
To ponder which pleading email to respond to first
Ben Nardolilli currently lives in New York City. His work has appeared in Perigee Magazine, Red Fez, Danse Macabre, The 22 Magazine, Quail Bell Magazine, Elimae, fwriction, Inwood Indiana, Pear Noir, The Minetta Review, and Yes Poetry. He blogs at mirrorsponge.blogspot.com and is looking to publish a novel.
Academy of the Heart And Mind 