Alan S. Kleiman
(USA)
IN THE AIR
In the end,
Nothing mattered but her smile
He remembered it in the shower
Or passing a staircase
Or by the garden
Where the rosebushes stood
As thorns and sticks Still
too early In this season.
Inside,
He felt it
When he heard her voice
Or when he smelled perfume
On a passing subway or
Left in an elevator
Behind.
In the end,
Its warmth left him thriving
Sustained
Like toast hot and crisp
With butter melting
Nothing else to eat
Nothing more needed
Honey floating in the air.
WHO I AM
In the middle of the day
Six teenage boys
Came to me
As in a dream
Whoa man
Said one
Whoa whoa man
Said another
Hey mister said a third
None knew my name or my game
Or the name of my cat or dog
Later at the cupboard
Getting a mug
For hot water and tea
I said to the receptionist
Show me your numbers
And she lay down
On the table
Lifted her skirt
And there on her right thigh
Running
Down
Almost to her knee
Was her federal tax ID, her cell phone number,
Her American Express account and curling up toward the outer thigh
Her visa and library card numbers,
Ending in her driver’s license number
As if it were the cross piece of a scrabble game
TRIPLE WORD SCORE.
I never forget who I am she said to me.
THE 23RD SONATA
The day before,
My mother rang me up
Singing Beethoven’s
Appassionata first movement
Like it was written for voice
Into the receiver.
I moved the phone farther from my ear
Not comfortable having someone sing into my ear
Especially something written for piano
Plus she was dead two years
I listened like a good son,
Like a musician, the violinist at heart
And felt the Beethoven waft across my body
Like warm rage.
What’s that sound my wife asked
From the other room
It’s your mudder-in-law
Breaking wind – I mean bread
From beyond the fringe of life
She thought I was a wise guy
Didn’t retort but ignored me,
And I hummed the passionata
With all my heart and soul
With every fiber of my guts
Like the day I was born till
The day I’ll die.
https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Slam-Alan-S-Kleiman/dp/061585771X
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Alan S. Kleiman is the author of GRAND SLAM, a Collection of Poems published by Crisis Chronicles Press. His poetry has appeared in Blue Fifth Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Verse Wisconsin, The Criterion, and Festival Writer and in anthologies by Fine Line Press and Red Ochre Press. His poems have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Danish and Ukrainian. Alan appeared at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as a featured poet in the performing arts series. He lives in New York City and works as an attorney when not writing poems.