Philip Kobylarz, Tattletale, Photograph
WHERE ARE ALL THOSE STREET MEN NOW?
On the strange
cluttered street
where we walked
holding
on to each
other’s hand
a gray
man passed us
peered through
my blouse
with x-ray eyes
then so did you
change into an x-ray
beam
burning
off my clothes
while you smiled
a tender-brutal
bent
to your mouth
but it did not
make you more
familiar to me.
____________
Judy Cody
Review by Jared Pearce
The work to discern how we see ourselves truly is tricky, and trying to tease-out how others see us, truly, is even tougher. I like how this poem manages the three characters, the bad guy, the good guy who is now questionable, and the speaker, and how the three characters are and are not seeing each other truly, fully.
Review by Massimo Fantuzzi
The shift, the shadow that moves on the retina, the folding of a smile, the momentary lapse, the blink: how precariously our conventions stand, how short-lived our resolutions really are, how volatile the thought is. Good intentions, here they fall, and nothing really separates tender from brutal but the flick of one’s switch. And your infatuate eye / Meets not itself below: / Strangers lie in your arms / As I lie now. (from L. Bogan, Man Alone.)