{"id":3483,"date":"2015-08-02T14:57:51","date_gmt":"2015-08-02T14:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=3483"},"modified":"2015-08-09T14:58:07","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T14:58:07","slug":"two-poems-paul-genega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=3483","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems — Paul Genega"},"content":{"rendered":"

GYPSIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crowded among the sailors on Columbus\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

third voyage were farmers and crossbowmen,<\/p>\n

a miner and a priest, and several convicted<\/p>\n

murderers, including two gypsy women.<\/p>\n

 
\nThat one, Catalina, slouching
\nby the kettle, was a farmer
\nnear Cadiz. His hands are huge
\nand rough, my friend, so rough.
\n 
\nMaria, he says yesterday,
\nsometimes when I sleep
\nI see Asia sailing towards me,
\na beast-ridden place where
\nthe high-pitched sky sings
\nnonsense songs and rain comes
\ndown like Pentecostal flames.
\n 
\nAnd what was I to do \u2013
\nstir through his talk
\nlike the stools of the sick,
\ntell him to drink water,
\nsleep only on his stomach,
\nrefrain from fatback and beans?
\n 
\nI gave him what comes easy,
\nthat moment outside time.
\nAh, but if we two had been born
\nislands, how many times would
\nthese men already have arrived?
\n 
\nSometimes their mothers,
\nmore often their whores.
\nWhat they want are guarantees.
\nLike little boys they bring us
\nthe things they find at night.
\n 
\nWe examine them like pocket frogs,
\ntell them left is right is right.
\nWhat good would it do farmer-boy
\nto know how soon he\u2019ll die?
\n 
\nHush, look at the priest,
\nhow he glares at us with loathing,
\ngypsy women, women who have
\nmurdered, women who have lived.
\n 
\nBut the men do not go near him
\nand we see the strain
\nbeneath his cassock folds.
\nSo jealous, so impatient,
\nwhat a fool the padre is.
\n 
\nSoon enough it will be his turn.
\nWhen the soldier, the farmer,
\nthe miner and\u2026 yes\u2026 us\u2026
\nhave sweated out our dreams
\nthere will be much need
\nto look back then,
\nmuch to be confessed.
\n 
\nBut here, now, waiting for wind,
\nlocked in this journey
\nlike a yawn that doesn\u2019t end,
\nthere is just what lies ahead.
\nAnd the future, as these men know,
\nthat world, Catalina, is ours.
\n <\/p>\n

\n

RUTH\u2019S WHITE GLOVE<\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n

for Toni Morrison<\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe man with heavy
\nhands fumbles with
\npearl buttons, a long
\nrow of small buttons
\nshining like moons
\nin a universe of mites.
\nDown the satin white
\nhe works, awkwardly,
\npainstakingly, as if
\nhe were a wave grasping
\nsingle grains of sand.
\nOne by one he undoes
\nthem, him all thumbs
\nand praying it be proper,
\nthis slow solemn rushing
\nsolemn so slow rushing
\nwhen the last at last
\nreleases from its loop
\nthe glove sloughs off
\nand he strokes her
\nnaked flesh, believing
\nthe whole while it is he
\nwho has been touched.
\n 
\n <\/p>\n

\"TMHnn,Paul Genega is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently All I Can Recall<\/em> (Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2013). Over a forty year career, his work has appeared in journals such as Poetry, North American Review, New York Quarterly and Free Inquiry, and has garnered numerous awards, including the \u201cDiscovery\u201d\/The Nation Award and an individual fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He founded and directed the creative writing program at Bloomfield College, New Jersey, where his legacy continues through the Genega Endowed Scholarships. His theater collaboration with Emmy winning composer and writer Patricia Lee Stotter will have a first reading at NYU this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GYPSIES Crowded among the sailors on Columbus\u2019 third voyage were farmers and crossbowmen, a miner and a priest, and several convicted murderers, including two gypsy women.   That one, Catalina, slouching by the kettle, was a farmer near Cadiz. His hands are huge and rough, my friend, so rough.   Maria, he says yesterday, sometimes [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[171],"class_list":["post-3483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-kalderash-women-roma-sic-gypsy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3483"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3503,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483\/revisions\/3503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}