Cardboard by Gaby Bedetti

“I might as well be invisible,”
says his cardboard sign.
We stare at the veteran
in the subway station,
slumped forward,
hugging a small dog
our hands occupied
with lattes and scones.
A man steps
out of a Park Avenue tower–
calls to colleagues
as he slides into an Escalade,
“I’ll see you in Naples!”
Underground, the soldier has keeled over,
the animal snuggled against his chest.

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Gaby Bedetti’s poems appear in Italian-Americana, Still: The Journal, Gravel, and elsewhere. She is working on a collection with the support of an Artistic Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. At Eastern Kentucky University, she teaches Comedy as an Artistic Approach, which leads to a public performance, and an editing course in which students publish Eastern Kentucky University’s literary and arts journal.

Photo: Jon Tyson