POeT SHOTS is a monthly series published on the first Monday of the month. It features work by established writers followed by commentary and insight by Ray Greenblatt.
POeT SHOTS #12, Series C
THE PESSIMIST PREPARES FOR WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN NEXT
He already knows what will happen,
staring into the misty crystal ball of his mind.
The last shot spinning off the rim.
The winning field goal drifting wide to the right.
A grounder rolling between the first baseman’s legs.
Why ask an attractive woman at a party?
She’ll just deliver no on the grenade of a giggle,
the warhead of a loud laugh.
He’s not fooled by the weatherman’s patter.
Maps. Pressure. Radar.
The sleight of hand sunshine.
There’s a tornado in his tie. A hurricane in his hat.
Every numbered door conceals
a goat, a donkey, a junk car.
The wheel of fortune manipulates its momentum
until the flipper finds the black wedge of
BANKRUPT.
Most days he doesn’t bother to get out of bed.
The TV on.
Children crying. Angry adults demanding answers.
They never saw it coming.
They want to scream, This should be happening to someone else.
To you or you or you.
The stars just stare, shrugging their bright shoulders.
Watching the widescreen he feels as if he is floating above.
A young boy leaning over a promenade window
on the Hindenburg, marveling
at the sight of Manhattan. The enormous
Empire State Building.
The world calm and smooth.
Turning quietly.
Holding a cold glass of cola like a promise,
sweaty and half-empty.
Each unique image modifies the title: “She’ll just deliver no on the grenade of a giggle,/the warhead of a loud laugh.” “The sleight of hand sunshine.” “There’s a tornado in his tie. A hurricane in his hat.” “The stars just stare, shrugging their bright shoulders.” “A young boy leaning over a promenade window/on the Hindenburg, marveling.”
Ray Greenblatt has been a poet for forty years and an English teacher longer than that. He was an editor of General Eclectic, a board member of the Philadelphia Writers Conference, and is presently on the staff of the Schuylkill Valley Journal. He has won the Full Moon Poetry Contest, the Mad Poets Annual Contest, and twice won the Anthony Byrne Annual Contest for Irish Poetry sponsored by The Irish Edition. His poetry has been translated into Gaelic, Polish, Greek and Japanese.