They call him
the book boy,
at three he looked
at cherubic illustrations
of angels and saints,
at four he tore through
Blake's lions & bats,
by five he survived
reading and feeding in
War and Peace,
at six, during vacation
he became the youngest proofreader
in New York City,
at seven he was writing
his own fiction,
including science,
at eight he completed
his bio
replete with photos
and volume one commentaries,
at nine he won
several prizes
national and international,
at ten he was into
criticism of criticism
of criticism,
at eleven he became
his own publisher,
at twelve he did translations
in twelve languages,
at thirteen he had
a breakdown of sorts
while working on his book
of knowledge,
it's rumored
he works downtown
in a used bookstore;
he is in remainders.
A few shadows
appear on the back steps
a young orthodox soul
with commentaries
in his small hands
talks to a ballet dancer
practicing at the bus stop
making no secret
of her falling strap.
A mother with a coughing boy
demanding entrance to
the closed post office
watches two patients in leather
like unknowable angels
being put in a van
after road rage
and I, pretending to be foreign,
or to be asleep
unwilling to be a witness
of those whose liability is this life
walk away with the young woman
hawking newspapers
announcing another war.
This sky has lost snow
on a cab's siren
and the door closes
getting in a salty insult
a last look back
at the frozen parking lot
resembling a whitened shipwreck
by the crossroad harbors
in the ancient world.
You refuse to be silent
trying to humor me
in the lusterless mirror
of the dirty yellow taxi
your face is wizened pink
amid a chilling tomb
the mustached driver laughs
wishing to take you home
by voiding the meter.
B. Z. Niditch is a poet, playwright and teacher. His work appears in Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art, The Literary Review, Denver Quarterly, International Poetry Review, Hawaii Review, Prism International, France's Le Guepard, and the Czech Republic's Jejune. He will soon be featured in The New Novel Review. A new collection of his poetry, Crucifixion Times, has been published by University Editions.