Live Encounters Poetry & Writing May 2024.
Asterisk, poems by Louis Efron.
Special thanks to literary agent John Sibley Williams for this introduction.
Asterisk
Express Train
as if breaching a sealed plastic bag
filled with scorched marijuana
and sour urine
bullet-polished subway doors separate
with a shhhhhhhhhhhht
bringing us together
down below
where we are all invisible
clanking
metal on metal
like the pounding of empty soup cans
in unison
with flickering
fluorescent light
a distraction
to ignore
what makes us squirm
fixed forward
jerkingside to side
with every imperfection
each in our own obscure tunnel
until together again
illuminated by what we are
forced to notice
tightly pressed against
graffitied scratched glass
a pregnant woman
with a green knit hat
and glistening amber eyes
unable to cup her unborn child’s ears<
when stamped a whore
by a barking fatigued soldier<
freshly soiled
and forgotten
in urban trenches
tucked behind our backs
like a trembling child
in our protective shadow
we exit our stop
together ascending
cold black gum-encrusted gray stairs
towards heaven
as sunken stares
dart and bob
attempting to meet ours
desperate for connection
Techtopia
artificial grey matter spills
from large-headed missionaries
beckoning us to join them
in a world without sacred ground
where chattering disembodied heads
afloat with others
forge lasting bonds held together by
petite yellow-gloved hands
below fixed smiles where
nimble fingertips pinch charged pencils
etching teal-hued faces
on polished glass canvases
meant to represent us all
equally
permanent installations within
museums without walls
a place where dusty paper trays
are no longer needed
but still here for our children
to discard after we are gone
© Louise Efron
Louis Efron is a Pushcart nominated and award-winning writer and poet who has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, North Dakota Quarterly, Ginosko, Jasper’s Folly, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, A New Ulster, Flapper Press Poetry Café, PentaCat Press, Words and Whispers, Bourgeon, The Deronda Review, Young Ravens Literary Review, The Ravens Perch, POETiCA REViEW, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Literary Yard, New Reader Magazine and over 100 other national and global publications. He is also the author of five books, including The Unempty Spaces Between (winner of the 2023 NYC Big Book Award for poetry), How to Find a Job, Career and Life You Love; Purpose Meets Execution; Beyond the Ink; as well as the children’s book What Kind of Bee Can I Be?