#55 Transplant by Joey Nicoletti

9/11. The alphabet of the Sandias
shatters in World Trade Center window glass
on CNN. Jet streams scar

the Rio Rancho sky,
with high tide inevitable
back east. My father drives

his bus on the other side of Manhattan.
My worries jump out
the smoldering floor

of the first tower.
I call his cell phone again:
dial tones engulf my living room.

—

Joey Nicoletti is the author of Borrowed Dust (Finishing Line Press) and Cannoli Gangster (Turning Point Books, 2012). A graduate of the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College and former poetry editor of Puerto del Sol, Joey currently teaches creative writing and literature at Niagara University.

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#16 Cottonwood Mall Food Court Blessing by Joey Nicoletti

Peter at the cash register taking and repeating
your order—oh Rome slurping snow, oh
Peter fishing and denying, oh Simon
Peter telling Thomas to Super-size this in “The Last Supper,”

bless please the security guards strolling through the mall
helpless as screwdrivers.  Bless now
the photo booths, immortalizing the day
I bought my stop-sign red Chuck Taylor kicks—

and the exonerated woman in her lingerie nightmare,
her nightmare of cameras and guilt.  Peter,
lean on the counter clean shaven and bless
with easy listening like a brook of diet soda,
the boredom foaming at the mouth of my large Coca-Cola.

—

Joey Nicoletti is the author of Borrowed Dust (Finishing Line Press) and Cannoli Gangster (Turning Point Books, 2012). A graduate of the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College and former poetry editor of Puerto del Sol, Joey currently teaches creative writing and literature at Niagara University.