On Sundays
My plan was to kiss the woman
at the bakery counter,
but the manager rushed forward
and whacked me on the head
with a spoon.
He recites Homer on Sundays,
though not when it’s raining,
and he takes no chances
with troublesome dreamers like me.
At the side of the road
There were headless
mannequins lying
at the side of the road
with so many cars
moving slowly past
and not a single driver stopping
to take a closer look
or even perhaps
load them into the boot
and take them home
Door to door
She waits in front of a door
propped up in the sand
somewhere in the Kalahari
She does not see
the woman on the other side
of the door
kneeling down
and peering
through the keyhole
She sees only the man
in the green jacket
walking away in the distance
with a cat at his side
Zoo
Standing behind
the iron
bars
I peer
down
at the animals
When I look up
again
at the sun
I vomit
blood
from my nostrils
and my eyes turn
black
like their fur
Underground currents
A thin man
with a walking
stick
and a balloon
in the
cobblestone
streets
of the war-torn
city.
She turns,
rushing
through
the underground
currents.
Gary Cummiskey is a poet and publisher living in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the founder of Dye Hard Press, which he started in 1994. He is the author of several poetry chapbooks. His selected poems, Outside the cave, was published in 2021. In 2009, with Eva Kowalska, he compiled Who was Sinclair Beiles?, a collection of writings about the South African Beat poet. An expanded edition was published in 2016. His short story collection, Off-ramp, was short-listed for the 2014 Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award. His work has been published in the UK, US, France, Denmark, Sweden, India, Egypt, and Greece
Featured Photo: Lets Hope, Collage by Gary Cummiskey
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