LINES FOR JENNIFER MARTELLI
The news of your death
is a punch to my throat.
Our swapped stories
and laughs stumble
on my street’s sidewalk,
blanketed with crimson leaves
and a police siren’s blue wail
barricades my brain
and my broken heart
as if they were crime scenes.
TUCUMCARI GRIT
Today I am a train station, filled
with the smoky voices of engines
streaming in joyous tears
down people’s faces as they embrace
on sun-splashed platforms
and the magnificent terrazzo floor
of my luminous lobby. And
their joys are red-tailed hawks, soaring
above all of us in the hot, gritty air.
JUMPING DAREDEVIL’S BONES
I saw my first comic book
with Grandfather Joe.
It hung in the middle of a clothesline
behind the scratched glass counter
of our local bookstore. Daredevil stood
by his grave on the cover.
A lanky man with white gloves,
a shadowed face, red eyes,
and a cobalt blue fedora and cloak floated
above him. The man’s thin arms
seemed to stretch towards Daredevil,
as if attempting to grab him.
I didn’t know Daredevil was blind.
I didn’t know the issue’s guest villain
was called the Death-Stalker,
or that it would be the last time
I would see Grandfather Joe
outside of a hospital room.
But on this day, he chatted up
the emerald-eyed woman at the register,
who was about my mother’s age.
They lit each other’s smokes.
They took long, satisfied drags,
and she giggled
at every raspy word he said.
OCTOBER RAINWATER
The next time we see each other
the small mouths of power outlets will slide
into mile-wide, megawatt smiles
and wondrous ponderosa pines will line
the slippery, potholed streets in in my walnut-brown eyes
and the smokestacks that have emerged
from my impossibly hairy chest will crumble
while black-capped chickadees serenade each other
from our building’s beige porches and pewter gray rooftop
and their heartfelt songs will drip
in October rainwater
from the square mouths
of rusted gutters
Bio:
Joey Nicoletti is the author of four poetry chapbooks, six poetry full-length collections, most recently Breakaway (Broadstone Books, 2023), and Extinction Wednesday: A Memoir (Bordighera Press, 2024). Joey is also the Reviews Editor of Voices in Italian Americana (VIA) and teaches creative writing at Buffalo State University. Connect with him on Insta @joeynicoletti.
OVUNQUE SIAMO 