In order to view this poem with the line breaks the author intended, we suggest reading it on a computer screen or in the landscape orientation on your phone or tablet.

Inventory, Central Park, May 20
David Meischen

Muscle-calved gondoliers pedal tourists in pedicabs passing horse-drawn carriages from the Gilded Age. Hum of electric scooters. Sibilance of bicycle tires on smooth pavement. Leisurely promenade of baby carriages, clustered talkers behind them—mothers, fathers, nannies, nanas. Beneath vaulting elms, lilting African tongues make music of the morning while Spanish streams in all its iterations. Keen-edged consonants of Slavic speakers break against the agile glide of French. Runners sweep the curving drive in spandex, sports bras, running shorts, sweats—lone T-shirt among them in Texas orange with stark white longhorn logo. A tiny frou-frou dog frisks to keep up, bright pink bow among the curls on her forehead. Beside the path—tick-tick-tick-tick—the little hammer head on a rotating sprinkler taps out spurts of spray.

muffled pulse
of helicopter rotors
wingbeats in shade

—
A Pushcart honoree, with a professional essay in Pushcart Prize XLII, David Meischen is the author of Anyone’s Son, winner of the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. Napalito: Stories is forthcoming from the University of New Mexico Press. Co-founder and Managing Editor of Dos Gatos Press, David lives in Albuquerque, NM with his husband—also his co-publisher and co-editor—Scott Wiggerman.

Know anyone who might appreciate reading David’s poem?
Why not share the link to this page?

Have you read these poems:
What’s Torn by Jennifer Campbell
All Together Now by Charles Finn

Table of Contents