Sunday, July 2, 2023 Two Sonnets from Periodic Boyfriends by Drew Pisarra
BORON
Did you know when aliens walk this earth,
they travel alone, and rarely in pairs,
because they can’t find a soul mate who cares
on the cosmic level. They set more worth
on inner galaxies than humans do.
And then there was you, with your tattooed shanks
covered in Klingon quotes and Koalang
proverbs, indecipherable wisdom you
translated for me word by word. In turn,
I broke down the multiverse for you in
great detail, told of other worlds so like
this one yet not. At first your black eyes burned
intensely. Then I saw your gaze weaken
‘til it flamed out like a meteorite.
NIHONIUM
What constitutes bona fide chemistry?
Is it electric? Seismic? Magnetic?
What laws might apply from sexology?
The dynamic or the theoretic?
Does one’s physical form have properties
one could reclassify as reagents?
Should I test out various theories
that challenge bygone rules of engagement?
I prematurely abandoned the lab
where all-nighter research gets computed.
You could‘ve been both my probe and my slab
of meat. Such facts cannot be disputed.
As I type this sonnet, I sort of wish
I could put us back in that petri dish.
About the Poet
Drew Pisarra is the author of “Periodic Boyfriends” (2023) and “Infinity Standing Up” (2019), two collections of sonnets published by Capturing Fire Press, and two collections of short stories “You’re Pretty Gay ” (2021, Chaffinch Press) and “Publick Spanking” (1996, Future Tense Books). A recent grantee of the Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Curious Elixirs: Curious Creators, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, he is also an experimental playwright with two plays slated to premiere in NYC later this year: “Click” and “Price in Purgatory.”
Related Event
- Drew Pisarra will join Robert M. Giannetti, Julianne Neely, and Spencer Williams—all poets in the inaugural Artpark Literary Residency Program in partnership Foundling Press—in a reading prior to a performance by Third Coast Percussion (TCP)—a GRAMMY® Award-winning Chicago-based percussion quartet and GRAMMY®-nominated composer collective—at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 9th on Artpark’s Emerald Grove Stage, 450 S 4th St, in Lewiston, NY.The poets will perform at 3:30 and the music will begin at 4 p.m. Tickets are $12, available through the Artpark website.
The “Poem of the Week” feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.