DAFFODILS
Wordsworth in New York
Those daffodils that I recall
While lying on a bed settee
Are faded now, their petals fall
In nature and in memory.
It’s time to rise, to go outside
And head off for a subway ride.
I’m in New York’s YMCA
Undressing for a midday swim;
A poet could not but be gay
With bodies toned up in the gym.
But I am getting no cheap thrills
From dongs like dangling daffodils.
I twinkled at the twinkies there
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance
Or heading for the sauna where
I might get lucky if, by chance,
One of the bronzed and buffed young men
Is eager for my fountain pen.
But, sadly, no one needs to hear
This exiled poet strut his stuff.
I am an old Romantic queer,
Ignored, unloved. I’ve had enough.
I join the hustling New York crowd
And wander lonely as a cloud.
—from Rattle #84, Summer 2024
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Conor Kelly: “I was born in Dublin and spent my adult life teaching in a school in the city. I now live in Western Shore, Nova Scotia, from where I run a Twitter (X) site @poemtoday, dedicated to the short poem. I was once shortlisted for a Hennessy New Irish Writers award. At the ceremony one of the judges, Fay Weldon, asked me, ‘Where are you in these poems?’ I am still asking myself that same question.” (web)
