Someone Else’s Gift

/ Issue 15.2 /

Always to long for someone else’s gift—
To blow that blistering alto sax, to lift
……….Into the flash-bulbed air
For a reverse slam dunk while stunned guards gawk,
To have a punster’s cheek or porn star’s cock,
……….To capture, share by share,
Gold-plated Wall Street fame, to meditate
Beyond nirvanic depths or radiate
……….Beatitudes of prayer
Like any frescoed saint, even to make
A perfect triple-decker dark-fudge cake
……….Or master the éclair—
Means answering a roguish shout we follow
Down some smashed-bottle alley to a hollow
……….Recess, a doorway, where
If luck has tailed us on that lonely walk,
When we knock, because we have to knock,
……….No one will be there.

Stephen Kampa

Stephen Kampa

Stephen Kampa has three books of poems: Cracks in the Invisible (Ohio University Press, 2011), Bachelor Pad (Waywiser Press, 2014), and Articulate as Rain (Waywiser Press, 2018). He teaches at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL and works as a musician.
Stephen Kampa

Also by Stephen Kampa (see all)

Author: Stephen Kampa

Stephen Kampa has three books of poems: Cracks in the Invisible (Ohio University Press, 2011), Bachelor Pad (Waywiser Press, 2014), and Articulate as Rain (Waywiser Press, 2018). He teaches at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL and works as a musician.