Jonathan K. Rice- Three poems

At The Greek Festival

 

Ankle bracelet

& tattoo,

metallic turquoise

nail polish

& a silver ring

adorn her feet.

 

I notice from

the sidewalk

where I sit

eating souvlaki.

 

Bouzouki favorites

echo through

the neighborhood.

“Opa!” we shout

amid the sounds

& flavors

 

as tzatziki runs

down my beard

& my eyes run

up her tanned

brown thighs.

across the twilight

 

lightning bug,

mosquito, moth

 

do not require

air traffic control.

 

their knowledge

of flight

 

& aerodynamics

supercedes my own

 

as gravity and inertia

overtake me.

 

Solipsist Meltdown

 

Like a streetlight

that inexplicably

goes out whenever

I pass beneath it,

 

she strays the

boundaries

of my

imagination.

 

She is where

I least expect her

and nowhere

when I want her.

 

Every night

the same lamp

disappears

in the dark.

 

In synch

with anomalies

or just

bad timing,

 

I adjust

to avoid

unanswerable

questions.

 

Bio:  Jonathan K. Rice is founding editor and publisher of Iodine Poetry Journal, which is in its fifteenth year of publication. He is the author of a chapbook, Shooting Pool With A Cellist (Main Street Rag, 2003) and a full-length collection, Ukulele and Other Poems (Main Street Rag, 2006). His poetry has also appeared in numerous publications and he has been a longtime host of poetry readings in Charlotte, NC, where he lives with his family.  In 2012 he received the Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award for outstanding service in support of local and regional writers, awarded by Central Piedmont Community College.