Senor Codo photo
By
Marc Alan Di Martino
Pawn’s Game
Some are content to sit and watch the world
burn from their bedrooms, minutely attuned to events
through secret channels. Others jam the streets
with indignation, shadowboxing power,
euphoric in their dissent. Others still observe
comfortable events unspool their destinies
as in a game of chess, eye cocked on the king
confined to his quadrant. One faulty move and
check – the pendulum begins its slow descent.
Blue Ridge Service Station
I’m thankful not to dwell in you, America,
when I read signs like this:
Daily lunch special’s
live bait, ammo, new
.22 cal revolver, $169.
Staid old Europe
has lured me with its sixty-plus years
of sedative peace, like a dishevelled uncle
whose idea of an exciting day off
is the New York Times Sunday crossword.
I’ve discovered the wisdom of not trying too hard
to be exciting, I’ve mastered the art
of coming in second, keeping it short.
I watch you suffer blatant cardiac arrest
on an hourly basis, but I can’t weep. No longer.
I’ve become hard-boiled against pity.
I do not pray, I do not buy the gods
you peddle me, America, I do not buy
the yarn that you are the Greatest Nation on Earth,
a Shining City on a Hill, the New Jerusalem
(the old one is enough).
I was brought up to believe these things
as one believes – no, knows – the Earth is round.
But as with the Copernican awakening
which gave us the useful term revolution
and by extension the less useful one woke
one wakes up with a headache on the brain
feeling like an anti-drug commercial:
“This is your mind on politics,” as eggs
sizzle in a blackened skillet. These eggs are done.
Marc Alan Di Martino
Marc Alan Di Martino is a poet, translator and teacher whose work has been published Rattle, Verse-Virtual, the Ekphrastic Review, Writers Resist, Poets Reading the News, and other places. His interview with award-winning translator and poet Michael Palma was published in Faithful In My Fashion (Chelsea House, 2016).
He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Perugia, Italy, where he works as a teacher of the English language and is an avid skateboarder.
His Twitter is @marcadimartino.