Poetry: Selections from Nick Romeo

I Forgot the Words

Of a poem I worked on

In the abyss of my brain

While haunting the halls

Between the bathroom my cubicle

Coffee maker water fountain

Maybe in that order but not likely

 

I think it was about my dear friend

My job my broken computer at my job

My fellow workers at the job or detractors

Smoke detectors propulsion system inspectors

Stamp collectors debt collectors tax collectors

I still haven’t finished my taxes by the way

 

Or was the poem about how my dear friend, the accountant, broke my work computer during a fire because the propulsion system malfunctioned and the lack of smoke detectors did not signal my fellow workers and detractors in time to save the stamps from burning so therefore, I could not mail out my taxes and now the tax debt collectors are calling.

 

Actually I think it was about the rain.

How it can put out the fiercest fires.

It has been known to put out forest fires.

Is that why, my dear friend, you don’t like the rain?

Geometric Aesthetics

Those geometric designs

Of symmetry & beauty

U-shaped structure

Under the nose

With 45-degree lines

Connecting each side

to a semi-circle

Just above the chin

All highlighted in light fuchsia

 

I want to name them

Weapons of Mass Affection

But not sure of the power

Just from one picture sent

But I like to imagine

Those things in action

Would just one interface

End all life on earth

And likely the galaxy

The blast radius

With shock waves

Equal to collapsing suns

 

I have only one compliant

About that official moniker

It should not be a Cupid’s Bow

But Cupid’s H-Bomb

 

Peace Finally

 

I don’t want to talk to you about medicine and addiction. I don’t want to talk about our childhood trauma or guilt. I don’t want to talk about fear and weakness. These are the things I talk about with myself, too often.

I want to talk to you about what color to spray paint the cloud formations. I want to talk about writing haikus on mountain ranges so the Martians can read. I want to talk about elements 200 through 250 and delightful Latin naming conventions mixed with Old Testament iconography. I want to make you laugh until you’re snorting, for that is sexy. I want to cuddle with you through my sleepless nights talking about foreign movies, physics, other random art until I fall asleep in your arms as the sun rises gracing its presence through the trees upon a bed of tall dew laden grass.

Public Theater

Outfitted in a skimpy red dress

High heels and fishnets she

Sashays past a small group of poets

Who finished pints

Mixed with sentences

She winks at the group

While mouths agape

One in the group points

As others notice

Text written on her face

Likely black eyeliner pencil

Or perhaps mascara

Imaginary Don Juan is a

Misanthrope in Spite

Of Himself Being a Miser

A poet announces: Maybe it’s Maybelline

Another interrupts: No. It’s Madeleine

Stop to Smell the Rosary

somewhere in a tangle of dendrites

and neon lit roads I exist

a priori - an opportunity

upon our memories I subsist

strung along with pins and pictures

on a detective's mind map

an orthodoxy of evidence

showing my addiction trap

if I used that Rosary of jellybeans

would you pick off each one

with our eyes united

and by use of your tongue

or would you stash the art

in your hollowed out Bible

next to my heart

Nick Romeo, when not at his nine-to-five occupation which is strongly situated in the STEM fields, he passes the time with his wife, cats, and his art creations. His main forms of expression are 3D digital renderings, electronic music, writing, sewing, and photography. Nick's forthcoming chapbook is entitled Empyrean Fog Machines due to be released October 2023 by Back Room Poetry.