by Leo YankevichPublished: August 1, 2009
The winos on the benches, in between
swigs and catnaps, would refer to him
as Saint Francis of Bryant Park. It was
he who fed pigeons, from compassion or
compulsion? Alternating current had,
no doubt, already touched his brilliant mind.
The father of the wireless connection,
he’d reach into his bag, half-idiot,
half-genius, whispering in tender coos.
Having towered over both Marconi
and Edison, he’d toss the creatures crumbs
as part of some hermetic ritual.
Then he’d hightail it back to his small room,
converted years before into a roost,
and wait for his true love, a white dove.
He’d brood beside her on the Teleforce,
a weapon to end all wars. And when she died
he understood his work on earth was done.
About the Author
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Leo Yankevich’s latest books are
The Last Silesian (The Mandrake Press, 2005) and
Tikkun Olam & Other Poems (The New Formalist Press, 2008). His poems have appeared in
Amelia, American Jones Building & Maintenance, Artword Quarterly, Beauty for Ashes Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, Candelabrum, Cedar Hill Review, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, CounterPunch, Disquieting Muses, Edge City Review, Electric Acorn, Envoi, FutureCycle Poetry, Harpstrings, Iambs & Trochees, Iota, Ironwood, Kimera, Lite: Baltimore's Literary Newspaper, Lucid Rhythms, Mr. Cogito, New Hope International, Nostoc, Parnassus Literary Journal, Pennine Platform, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Poetry Nottingham, Psychopoetica, Raintown Review, Riverrun, Romantics Quarterly, Ship of Fools, Snakeskin, Sonnet Scroll, Staple, Sulphur River Literary Review, Tennessee Quarterly, The Barefoot Muse, The Chimaera, The East River Review, The Eclectic Muse, The Flea, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, The London Magazine, The MacGuffin, The Monongahela Review, The Neovictorian/Cochlea, The Shit Creek Review, thehypertexts.com, The Pennsylvania Review, The Sarmatian Review, The Tennessee Review, Tucumcari Literary Review, Trinacria, Visions International, Weyfarers, Whelks Walk Review, Windsor Review, inter alia. He is editor of
The New Formalist. More of his work can be found at
Leo Yankevich.com.
