Featuring Todd Cirillo

Gravitational Force

Even at this moment,

sitting across from you

working on our computers

separately and silently,

I can feel it,

like the tides

reaching for the moon,

an unseen force

pulling me

towards

you.

Still Drinking Alone

11:46a.m.

Monday.

Lunch at the Witt's Inn.

I sit at the bar

the only other customer

orders another

shot of Samba

and a Budweiser.

Speaks out loud

to no one particular,

me I guess,

"I was born

in 1958,

in the Navy

we drank Ouzo

in Greece.

There's been

a lot of hard living

between then

and now."

At 11:48a.m.

on a Monday

I believe him.

Good Strategy

            --for Wolfgang Carstens

There is a man

way up north,

beyond borders, plains, 

and mountain ranges.

Without his beard he looks respectable

even—

harmless.

He has a wife,

mortgage, a snow blower,

more kids, bills, and responsibilities

than I will ever know. 

I imagine him 

at a mild-mannered job

maybe wearing a uniform,

stocking shelves.

A man working

peacefully within the system.

Volunteers for the graveyard shift

allowing the darker words

to form under the florescent glow

of aisle 9

but at home

when the seal is broken,

the fridge is stocked,

and he is firing on all cylinders,

he is a motherfucking Mack truck

of a man

barreling through every barricade—

poetic and otherwise,

smoking, drinking,

making videos 

of himself reading 

tough and unforgiving 

poems he has written.

Until it is time to punch in once again.

I can only sit back

in awe and admiration

at his brutal strategy

of total retaliation

against

ALL of it.

(Epic Rites Broadside, 2017)

December 31st

Last year 

we celebrated 

your birthday

and the new year

together.

I told you

to blow out

the candle

and make a wish

over a 

Mexican dessert

but not to tell me

what you wished for.

This year

we don't 

speak.

I like to tell myself

you wished for

a new car.

Thanks Sweetie

            --for Annie Menebroker

“Hi sweetie”,

were the first words 

Annie spoke to me

and that is all it took.

Over the years,

I would call her

my traveling partner.

She would laugh

and tell me she was a 

traveling partner 

who didn’t travel anywhere.

She would open our conversations with,

“love to see all your pictures

of the places you go,

things you see, 

and hear the music 

you get to dance to”.

In June,

we spoke by phone 

and ended 

as we always did,

Annie telling me,

“thanks for calling sweetie”

followed by my,

“love you Annie”.

except this time,

each of us added 

a goodbye.

My traveling partner 

provided me with more

stories than she would admit to

and material for the heart

to last my lifetime--

and perhaps that’s why 

I live in New Orleans

where I get called “sweetie”

at least twice a day,

and everytime

I am reminded 

of my traveling partner

so I always say,

“thanks sweetie” back,

just in case

I never told her enough

while she 

was still

here.


Todd Cirillo loves good times and shiny moments. He lives in New Orleans so there are plenty of those to be found. His latest book is Burning the Evidence, (Epic Rites Press, 2017). He can be found at afterhourspoetry.com and youtube.