The Invisible Man Plants a Kiss on the Forehead of Absence
The invisible man
likes ornate postage stamps
stamps with rivers, ferns, crowns
and magpies. The invisible man
likes roses on stamps, and steps
and balconies and courtyards.
He likes tents, whips, milk boxes
dead end streets, fire escapes
cobbled hilly streets and a garden
with white trellises and stone benches
along a riverbend. He likes things
he’s seen and touched, and places
he’s been to, and will never be in again.
He knows people who like some
of the things he likes. One wears
a gray coat, another a bowtie
and a watch fob. Like him, they
walk quiet streets, and look
at wind in treetops. No one asks
why he thinks of himself as invisible.
He doesn’t know why. As for absence
he kisses that forehead every day.
• • •
Peter Mladinic’s poems have recently appeared in Neologism, the Mark, the Magnolia Review, Ariel Chart, Bluepepper and other online journals. He lives with six dogs in Hobbs, New Mexico.