Page 60 - Vol. VI #10

DoMenic Scopa
Salutation
Snowflakes punctuate the darkness, punctuate the run-on sentence of an early morning,
when sunrise insinuates itself on the horizon like a Polaroid developing.
On Main Street, a driver slams the brakes, skidding, tattooing treads in snow,
and workers, one with salt and sand,
the wind discovering their upturned faces,
continue shoveling the storefronts, the moment snuffed like a match.
There’s so much noise the neighbor’s beagle has already started barking.
And we still wake up to each other, sleepy, thankful,
perhaps a little button-pushy,
but with age, we get more playful.
Roll over, queen, and tell me
if you think this is a heart murmur.
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Scopa is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the 2014 recipient of the Robert K. Johnson Poetry Prize and Garvin Tate Merit Scholarship. He holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. His poetry and translations have
been featured in The Adirondack Review, Reed Magazine, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Prime Number, and many others. He is currently a Lecturer of English at NHTI, Concord’s Community College.