July on South St. (AEAE)

By NICK MAIONE

Two trees during sunset 
Northampton, MA

I open the doors and windows and shut off the lights.
For a while I play tunes on the fiddle
shirtless in my dark house. I love doing this.
For the first time all day I am not at home.
For the first time since the last time
my body is the same size as my flesh.
The only home I have is finally mine
and there is a breeze.

The last colors leave the sky
and the neighborhood is completely dark.
I wish I was able to love more easily
but I am not a very generous person.
I don’t think my neighbors mind so much.
I don’t play too poorly, or for very long.

After a few redeeming non-melodic wisps
with the bow, which I cannot help doing,
I stop. Silence pours out of the empty house.
I hear most clearly in this instant what the world
will sound like without me in it.

 

Nick Maione‘s poems have appeared in jubilat, TriQuarterly, On The Sea Wall, Adirondack Review, and Peripheries, among others. He edits the online recitation journal Windfall Room and is the founder & artistic director of Orein Arts, a residency program at a monastery in Upstate New York. He holds an MFA in poetry from UMass Amherst and lives in the Northeast. Instagram: @nmaione_

From the beginning, The Common has brought you transportive writing and exciting new voices. We are committed to supporting writers and maintaining free, unrestricted access to our website, but we can’t do it without you. Become an integral part of our global community of readers and writers by donating today. No amount is too small. Thank you!

July on South St. (AEAE)

Related Posts

Image of a tomato seedling

Talks with the Besieged: Documentary Poetry from Occupied Ukraine  

ALEX AVERBUCH
Russians are already in Starobilsk / what nonsense / Dmytrovka and Zhukivka – who is there? / half a hundred bears went past in the / direction of Oleksiivka / write more clearly / what’s the situation in Novoaidar? / the bridge by café Natalie got blown up / according to unconfirmed reports

A Tour of America

MORIEL ROTHMAN-ZECHER
This afternoon I am well, thank you. / Walking down Main Street in Danville, KY. / The heavy wind so sensuous. / Last night I fell- / ated four different men back in / Philadelphia season lush and slippery / with time and leaves. / Keep your eyes to yourself, yid. / As a kid, I pledged only to engage / in onanism on special holidays.

cover for "True Mistakes" by Lena Moses-Schmitt

Giving the Poem a Body: Megan Pinto interviews Lena Moses-Schmitt

LENA MOSES-SCHMITT
I think sometimes movement can be used to show how thought is made manifest outside the body. And also just more generally: when you leave the house, when you are walking, your thoughts change because your environment changes, and your body is changing. Moving is a way of your consciousness interacting with the world.