So Scared

So scared--I have to run somewhere,
get lost in the glossy catafalques,
play a lyre, coax ghosts.

The illimitable pittances,
those contraband crumbs
available for me to consume
leave me hopelessly
weary, wan, waylaid.
Internecine visions evince
too many dismal decisions.
And those supposedly
unsolvable metathetical issues
you mull
only relevant to the extent that
someone who cares is listening.
I’ll take any meal you can spare--
fried grasshoppers,
whatever I can swallow.

Oh, and one more thing--
should this solicitation
catch you unexpectedly
with your pants down
we both drown.





Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His theater and restaurant reviews have been published in various newspapers, with poetry and interviews appearing in numerous national journals, among them Portland Review, Main Street Rag, Kestrel, Scarlet Literary Magazine, Cream City Review, Nimrod, Penny Ante Feud, New Plains Review, Poetry Quarterly, The Muse: An International Journal of Poetry, and Clockhouse Review. He has published a travel guide, Best Choices in Northern California, and Time Lines, a book of poems. He lives in Marina, California.