Two Poems

Joseph Zaccardi

Civility

The Union soldiers and the Confederate soldiers
had this in common: their screams could be heard
by either side. The field surgeons would administer
laudanum and the wounded would become so quiet,
it was thought to be a cure,
this civility of silence.

***

You Have Ten Minutes to Explain Infinity

First minute: a butterfly.
Second minute: petrified wood.
Third minute: the molten core of the earth.
Fourth minute: a leviathan.
Fifth minute: the fossil of a fern.
Sixth minute: a dead star.
Seventh minute: conception.
Eighth minute: a newborn.
Ninth minute: truth.
Tenth minute: a silkworm.

And when you meet God, you'll have ten minutes.
Explain: you didn't know.

Fairfax, California poet Joseph Zaccardi is Associate Editor of the Marin Poetry Center Anthology. He teaches Transformations: A Poetry Tutorial. His poems have appeared in Runes, Seattle Review, Southern Poetry Review and elsewhere. He received a grant from the Marin Arts Council for his first book, Vents. Another collection, Render, will be out in the summer of 2009 from Poetic Matrix Press.

Return