When you tilted your head back a bit
to squeeze drops into your eye
I caught a glimpse of what was in it,
of how you made a pancake of your lid
and stuffed it with the best
that you could see:
the freshest strawberries,
mainsails of lilies in July
blousing upon the twin ponds
of the Botanic Garden conservatory.
Not quite sure how lilies would fit
in the nice day recipe, I had to give you
credit for innovation. If Charlie Chaplin
could pot a prospector’s boot
in The Gold Rush,
why not daylilies in your mashup
amidst the rods and cones, more digestible than leather.
If you could take a selfie
of what I see in you
you’d know that I am right
and that you’re having a really nice day,
a cornucopia more full of good things
than even IHOP’s Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity,
because I told you to.
Harvey Preston Soss lives in Brooklyn, New York, and first began writing seriously some three years ago, having recently all but abandoned his law practice, devoted primarily to the criminal defense of indigents, to write full-time. He won Writers’ Digest Writing Competition poetry awards in 2015 and 2016. Two of his poems were published in conjunction with the 2016 University of Canberra’s Vice-chancellor’s International Poetry Prize; others are presently awaiting publication both here and abroad.