Two Poems by Ed Coletti

Time Travel On a Bicycle
Nothing much about the forty-six years since
I lived in that little Marin town of Fairfax
I visited today with a friend and
could not even begin to fathom
the sheer bulk of time so encompassed
while the space of the town remained as
it had been then where only time had changed
along with me at 72 no longer 26
riding my 10-speed high frame Raleigh
across Broadway at Bolinas
on to other pretty tiny towns
Larkspur Mill Valley Sausalito
over the Golden Gate
into vaporous San Francisco on Lombard
to Gough Street to  fly down Bush
into the city’s heart its Tenderloin
Union Square and back once again
through its Presidio and Fort Point
that glorious autumn rust of a bridge
back into the early Seventies
warmth
.            that was the County of Marin.

El Pequeño Valle
Ellie taking a crack at getting in touch
Big birds squawking at sunup
Nothing as elusive to Ellie as Ellie.
Patas monkey screech, river echoing,
She scratches the diminutive valley
Between right hip and rib.

Crocodiles in slow race glide.
Ellie’s single fingers part and press
While, with spoonbills daintily hovering,

Ellie trying, gives it all she’s got.
And softly rocking herself in place
Ellie’s got quite a bit going for herself,

Floating down the Rio Negro accompanied
By howler monkey’s ominous baying
Ellie rubbing awake that seldom recalled

Little valley of sensitivity above her hip
Beneath her bottom rib on the right side
Just then as a tropical sun surmounts

The Nicaraguan horizon’s growing blaze
Igniting, oh this brilliant morning conflagration
Of major minor undiminished tropical birds,

She shouts with the fledgling sun
Then listens to the Rio Negro’s whisper.
Todo es bien aqui donde el rio le susurra.

 

About the Poet
Ed Coletti is a poet, painter, fiction writer and middling chess player. Previously,he served for three years as an Army Officer, then as a Counselor, college instructor, and later as a Small Business Consultant. Recent poems  have appeared in ZYZZYVANorth American Review, Volt, Spillway, and Blueline.  Most recent poetry collections include The Problem With Breathing (Edwin Smith Publishing –Little Rock- 2015) and Apollo Blue’s Harp And The Gods Of Song published by McCaa Books February 2019.  Ed also curates the popular ten-year-old blog “No Money In Poetry”  http://edwardcolettispoetryblog.blogspot.com/ He lives with his wife Joyce in Santa Rosa, California where they lost their home during the October 2017 firestorm.  The Coletti’s are pleased to report that they happily have relocated elsewhere in Santa Rosa.