I wanted to dazzle you
with saints and witches
impress you with Mayan
priests carving into the teeth
of young girls to inlay
chips of blue jade.

I gave you a man who
carried a ladder
all over the world
propping it against cathedrals
to climb to the moon,
submerging it into the sea
to the other side of the world.

My fear of heights
could’ve been a poem
but I gave you some
apocryphal joker
in a tree with a broom.

I’m the Oliver Hardy
of poetry squashed by
the piano of nonsense
at the bottom of literary stairs.

I feel like a man who sees
a picture of his wife
in the newspaper, dark
sunglasses, blonde wig, handcuffs,
married to a spy in Europe.

# # #

Lenny DellaRocca is founder/publisher of the South Florida poetry Journal, and Interview With a Poet (southfloridapoetryjournal.com). His work can be found in numerous lit mags online and in print. His latest book, Blood and Gypsies, will be reviewed in The Potomac in a forthcoming issue. Read more here: http://www.southfloridapoetryjournal.com

Photo credit: Terri Malone