Fredrick Zydek is the author of eight collections of poetry and editor for Lone Willow Press. Formerly a professor of creative writing and theology at the University of Nebraska and later at the College of Saint Mary, his work has appeared in The Antioch Review, Cimarron Review, Nimrod, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. When he’s not writing or editing, he’s a gentleman farmer.
The local tour guide believes in leather boots with wide toes. Sturdy soles. Protein for breakfast.
The young sailor said he would give me a modicum of love if I let him use my body as a harbor.
The ticket seller would prefer to meet the guests outside, order them shortest to tallest, take the most boisterous by the hand.
The skull-like villa lost in a garden of dreams, so seem the isle’s cimitero:
I have fallen in love with winter, / with the day that ends at 3:45 in the afternoon. // with the man striding along the path grasping / a pink plastic bag that glows incandescent / although it only contains dish soap / and the cat food he carries home after work …
...you wonder again about the soul, / Where it hides, where it ventures. / There's always one you have to bring to oblivion...
Read more Poetry or Postcard Prose
