the blinding of samson at w 79th street (south of zabar’s)

by Joe Pagano, Jr.

Laozi on a musk ox plays reed flute

who among you is you and you alone

you were not born to be adored

I promise this

we sit down to a dinner of gunmetal clouds

lightning activates the palette

a choir of 9

chrysanthemums lulls us to sleep with the dates

of our children's demise

What is it to rub two stones together?

Stars mumble as an infant’s hands clutching light

I saw you naked in the darkened hallway declaiming Dante in perfect Latin

Your barometer predicted hurricanes

While the arms of the condemned awaited the needle for crimes not yet committed

To lay sleeping head shorn in Delilah’s lap what dreams abided on the back of eyes

waiting to be gouged by philistines and made lucid restored

That night you plucked the red words

from my mouth like berries in the wild

and found a place for them in your breast

I moved in you like great rivers did

once on the moon

we tramped trains west

and watched

the godmelt sundown horizon

burn like the bell of a hobo stove

A faded plastic statue of the Virgin Mary

taped to the dashboard of his green El Dorado

Alligator presses

his oil soaked boot against the pedal

And progresses against all measure

Wandering outside the realm

"Of Saturn Devouring His Son"

By Goya

Not yet a saint

John the Baptist hides

In the hedge with a tommy gun

Water pistol while

heretics slam their

wash on stones

as bare-chested women

Squat by the bawdy house

Passing wind that sounds like

An inverted Fibonacci trombone

The unborn circle perdition

In a cloud of sighs

BIO: Joe Pagano, Jr. studied Classics and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and he was General Manager of The Onion in NYC. His work has appeared in Narrative Magazine, War, Literature, and the Arts, Blue Mountain Review, StoneShoes, High Shelf, and other publications. He was a finalist for the Pirate Alley Faulkner Wisdom Award.