2 Poems
A West Coast Seascape on a Black Canvas
After an episode of The Joy of Painting
In these dark Pacific waters
slapping the rocky bluff
and polishing the SoCal sand
to a spit-shine sheen
under night clouds billowing,
Dennis Wilson
didn’t go swimming with
Charles Manson.
Dracula Betrayed, or Nosferatu Negated
A bat flaps through
an open window
of a country home.
It sees its reflection
in a bedroom mirror.
Joel Allegretti is the author of, most recently, Platypus (NYQ Books, 2017), a collection of poems, prose, and performance texts, and Our Dolphin (Thrice Publishing, 2016), a novella. He is the editor of Rabbit Ears: TV Poems (NYQ Books, 2015). The Boston Globe called Rabbit Ears “cleverly edited” and “a smart exploration of the many, many meanings of TV.”
Other Works
The Progress of a Myth
by Mark J. Mitchell
... The first time, / he tried to stop it ...
Dead Animals
by Justine Gardner
... There are no cats, no small dogs, / sealed in zip-top bags in preparation / for you to take them to be burned...