Photo (CC) joiseyshowaa @ Flickr
*
The Child
These days, I am not so old. But you
Are the wraith iced in small laughs and I
Simply will not have you. Your small teeth
Seem to countdown something.
In the old picture you are still small, your little
Bright soul snares the world and
You drag events away from me. In your tiny wake
My love is spent on a smiling wall. You are his first disaster.
And I must scurry under your weight, like the rain.
He turns your horrible vowels into myths and how they rise
Like sweet smoke and how there are no words left in the world
When you are done speaking. You enter and will not leave.
Your shadow will break my bones. You rest
In a small haven of suburban fantasies and revolving seasons
With a mother and a father and a plain white town house.
You occur viciously, without spite perhaps, but with terrible force.
The child occurs.
“He’s adorable.
He looks just like you.
I’d love to meet him.
What’s his name?”
*
The Sum of a Man
Is dominion. I will not
Work, I am fed. I find
Myself when washing his suits.
And all night I have pictured
Tomorrow, being in the same
Bed, wanting nothing. I am
Diaphonous and he
The master of metals, the one
Who pinches my dreams in place.
And all night I have been wanting
To cook him breakfast, the
Fat smell of grease dirtying the air,
The warmth of pans. And he eats.
And so he goes hunting
In the skull grey car and brings home
Plastic, miles and miles of it
While I wave by the door,
Happy, jobless, safe.
*
ABOUT THE POET
Nicholaos Floratos is an undergraduate student at Macquarie University, studying for a Bachelor of Arts with a major in creative writing and cultural studies. Nick is academically and creatively interested in the efficacy of identity and matters of the self. He has Filipino and Greek heritage from his mother and father’s side respectively and has had the odd privilege of being raised in both cultures. He is new to the professional publishing scene, with his first set of publications occurring this year. His poetry is typically inspired by a combination of his personal and student life.
Contrappasso Magazine: International Writing 