Milind Padki
POETRY
SCIENCE FICTION
● What Frank Saw in the Parking Lot
OTHER
OBITUARY
(remove spaces)
Selecting A Shirt For An Open Mike
Poetess after poetess will heave
Her bottom out of these chairs, walk
To the mike in the bright light and leave
Something wonderfully fragrant in the air,
A faint ripple of joy and lassitude will
Pass through the audience, spines will sag,
Eyes will meet and nod, after which
It will be your turn. What
will you wear?
The beard will help hide the weak chin, the wool
Cap the mickey mouse ears. Try
To wear the eyes hollow and gaunt:
Part hobo poet, part twelve-stepper in
Recovery mode.
But a shirt from JC Penney's? Macy's?
No!!!
It needs to be darker than your skin tone,
Cubicle-wear will not do, nor will the
Blue-collar dignity of a good Wal-Mart shirt
Suffice: You must somehow look Metrosexual, and not
Nice!
A barely contained deep and violent revolt,
The metal of the mike turning white hot
and twisted: that is what we are looking for, and
a shade perhaps,
Of a man marked by time.
And so you must step into those brand outlets with unpronounceable
names and buy
That part-gay, part-May
Deep raven-black shirt, paying
Twenty-one dollars just for its vertical line
Of delicate white Zen cranes.
At least that should induce an applause.
(Paramus, NJ, 05/15/05)