Spinning Bottle
Rent from DeepDyve- Spinning Bottle
Eugene Zuckman, friend at 12
Where have you wanderedin this widening world?There must be a megalopolisof memories imprinted uponthose neurons of your limbic lobewhere event and smell entwinelike newlyweds. Inhale once,you're back: the dark-veneeredfloors, the musty corridorssuffused with the immigrantwaft of cooked cabbage,the light dim throughoutyour mother's flat, as if cuttingwattage could bring your father back.Who knocked first, gap-toothed Ruth,still a half-head taller than us?Did we eat anything, or just dropto the floor? It's all gone opaquesave that empty Coke bottlesighting its slow sure waytoward me: eyes shut,lips protruding, waiting,waiting. Have you found yourselflooking for her, Eugene,out on the dance floor?Do you protrude your lips too,hoping the perfect lipsof Phyllis Glist touch yoursagain, hoping this timeyou'll know what to do? [End Page 61]
Roy Jacobstein's A Form of Optimism (UP New England) won the Morse Poetry Prize and includes poems that received the 2006 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award. His poetry is included in Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry & Drama (McGraw-Hill). He is a public health physician working internationally on women's reproductive health.
