THE INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF ORDER
Whose turn is it
anyway? she jokes
to poke fun at me,
while I, the oldest,
hide my guilt.
If the world were fair,
her hair would
still be her own
instead of a wig.
For the rest of the day,
no one mentions it again.
When the food is ready,
we each take turns
filling our plates.
A cooper’s hawk
swoops down
in a failed attempt
to capture a chickadee
at the birdfeeder.
We sit in her yard,
where the small fire
in the ember pit
burns slowly.
—from Falling off the Empire State Building
2019 Rattle Chapbook Prize Winner
__________
Jimmy Pappas: “My Dad told me before he died about a creative idea he had to make ‘mythology cards.’ They would be like baseball cards. He would draw a figure from Greek mythology on one side, and on the back of the card would be a story about the drawing. I realized he was sharing with me an artistic dream of his that he could never do now. I promised him that I would finish my first book of poetry and get it published because that was my artistic dream. We all have in us this godlike desire to create.” (web)
Jimmy Pappas was the guest on episode #34 for the Rattlecast. Click here to watch!
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