Poems by Michael Bernicchi

sideshow heart

all the prettyprizes
wait in light
all secondhand 
and 
shunned

but 
	stitched   /   stuck
on tongues
just 
the same
	
we dance alike 
	and you
 a little girl again
with
balloonsticks and 

	I try to win 
your heart with 
a sledge
and I step 
right up

placing you 
down
so I can let 
you go
up	 uP 	UP 

though you 
don’t look 
down
for fear of never 
letting 		go

and me
	moving in
sea of string 
below
coded   /   cants
	
and	 you
can’t understand
			and 	you
littlelinguistinlove 
	never 
stood 
a 
	chance

the rain was falling   
i was drinking tea and 
watching 
the wet people run  legs were 

pendulum like 
and blurred 
and were attached to shoes 
their toes tipped through 

pools  people leapt 
	ran 
hurdled 
and 	cursed 

and no one held the door 
			open  
for the others behind them
and this is why the rain kept 

falling  
it doesn’t give a 
shit about us 
		either