5 Fragments from New York City

MoMA Prelude
Urgently, I text my mother
from near Times Square.
I tell her I just ate
a falafel burger!
In Kentucky, she reads
my text and grins.
I know this because
she introduced me to falafels.

The Starry Night to Naked Eyes
From five paces away
I see rolling waves
of dreamy blue.
Gentle suns encircled
by curling breeze—
brushed flourishes
like cupcake frosting.

My Birth through Photographs
From a distance, I see
lots of nudes, walls filled
with snapshots in the raw—
probably one of those
in-your-face feminist exhibits.

Up close, I see I’m right.
But I also see fetuses
halfway to born—walls
papered with graphic birthing
portraits of mothers mid-
contraction. Breathing
before everything I’ve ever
wanted to say about life
in poetry, I feel won over.

The Starry Night through Glasses
From five steps back, I see
chipped lines of confrontation,
glinting starbursts contained
by abrasive ridges of darkness—
brushstrokes like tree bark.

MoMA Postlude
Lazily after passing
Radio City Music Hall, I post
a selfie on Facebook.
With raised chin, I stand by
a bunny statue. I pose
serious, so I come off silly.
Down south, my mom smiles.
I know this because
she clicks Like AND comments!

Poet’s Notes:

MoMA is The Museum of Modern Art, located in New York City.

The Starry Night stanzas are based on my viewing of van Gogh’s painting at MoMA.

The My Birth stanza references Carmen Winant’s work of the same name. It features found images and does include nudity (powerfully and profoundly in my opinion).

Gillie and Marc’s sculpture, Paparazzi Dogman & Paparazzi Rabbitwoman may currently be found on 49th Street near Rockefeller Center. In the interests of photographic quality, I have cropped out my selfie portion of the photo 😉 Both images in this post are mine.