Stations of a Dream
A bedside clock burns its calibrations
as the cave of sleep straightens to an exit
four A.M. or thereabouts, the scrape
of patio furniture bullied by a truck of wind.
Where had I been—? Oh yes, in a bedroom
of the old house on Gloria Street
my long-dead father cracks the door to warn
of unuseful skills garnered at expensive colleges.
My mother croons him to bed, the one she’ll cry out from
alone, four years later.
That summer, we’d toured the exurbs of Taormina
to light tapers in a chapel by the banded sea.
Now, a last cocktail swells my bladder
and stiffens my joints, the moon rousing me
to night’s cold feet against my back
until I drop off again to make love in a car
with someone I can’t see and enjoy it
all the more for that blindness.
This stuttering light, this fractured sleep
an all-night transit through the years
on a train that runnels between stations, reshuffles
memories of weddings and bad loans, lost kids
with a trick to gentle the straining heart
say the thing unsaid, unhook the beggared love—
This dream like a fistful of cards slapped down
a life laid bare that calls me back
to sort out the game
or fold my hand.
Father Prayer
After all those summers playing pinocle
tracking down open houses
and frying eggs to early Sinatra
you died in a condo in California
where the mailman stuffed coupons into beehives.
Sniffing money, your favored son crowded me out
to make theatre of your deathbed and cast me the villain.
Your wife, taken in by the ruse, joined him
so that your last stories were unheard by me
the questions I’d asked years ago finally answered
but whispered to those who hadn’t asked
and couldn’t remember. […]
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Glen Vecchione, also writing under the name of Glen Peters, is the author of 28 science, math, and history books that have been translated into six languages and distributed throughout the world. His poetry and short stories appear in Missouri Review, ZYZZYVA, Comstock Review, and Main Street Rag. His new work, including a chapbook, is forthcoming from Prairie Schooner, Finishing Line Press, and Rebel Satori. His first novel, Where the Nights Smell Like Bread, was published by Rattling Good Yarns Press in April 2025 and his new novels, The Crows and Fire Exit, are forthcoming from Rebel Satori. Glen currently divides his time between Palm Desert California, and Umbria, Italy.