The boy – 7 – walks by the Brooklyn luncheonette
and the jukebox plays
The night is like a lovely tune
beware my foolish heart
With the years the melody returns
And always out of nowhere
A love affair begins and there it is
A love affair ends and there it is again
In my middle years on a walk
It makes the silence speak
Somehow fills an emptiness
Forces a reaching out
At 7 my foolish heart knows nothing of foolishness
Opens to whatever clings to it
At 77 I love the world so much
I want all of it
And my foolish heart looks on the grave and I think
Does the melody ask me to begin to say goodbye?
Greg Moglia’s work appears in over 350 journals in 10 countries as well as in five anthologies. Ten times a winner of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award. Among the journals are – Peregrine, Southern Humanities Review, Rattle, English Journal, South Carolina Review, and Tampa Review.
