The Wandering Gamete’s Hymn to a Public Park

In the park, panties flash
like flags of fugitive nations

Every animal on the merry-go-round
replaces the last and maintains, each time
that it’s always been there, twisting with twisted delight
the afternoon from its stem, heaving it discarded
just footsteps from where it had lived so peaceably

Gently enthralled by thighs and the threat of rain
the promise of tedium and dimpled irregular clouds
Heat mutes light and summer women
don’t know any better, or they do
Either would be wonderful
Not knowing is wonderful too

Twisting on an unseen stem
maybe I was no gentleman
Maybe I never understood women or the sky
But I imposed my fantasies on them
and they their weather on me

Everyone’s been wanton
responsive and irresponsible
And so far it’s worked out
kind of

Colin Dodds has made his living as a journalist, editor, copywriter and video producer. Over the last seven years, his writing has appeared in more than three hundred publications, including Gothamist, Painted Bride Quarterly and The Washington Post, and been praised by luminaries including Norman Mailer. His poetry collection, Spokes of an Uneven Wheel, was published by Main Street Rag Publishing Company in 2018. His novel, Vice Nimrod, Communications, was longlisted for the 2019 Beverly Prize. He lives in New York City, with his wife and daughter.

Edward Michael Supranowicz has had artwork and poems published in the U.S. and other countries. Both sides of his family worked in the steel mills and coalmines of Appalachia.