JOE ALBANESE - POEMS

Warning: Rant Commencing 
​

Joe Albanese is a writer from South Jersey. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry can be found in publications across the U.S. and in ten other countries. Joe is the author of Benevolent King, Smash and Grab, Caina, For the Blood is the Life, Candy Apple Red, and a poetry collection, Cocktails with a Dead Man.

Not in the wishing well do I sing,
but in the jagged edges of a dying
star. (The reciprocal use of what
I’ve amassed has gone
unnoticed.) It is in that humble
giant that I daydream, turned
inside out for all to see. Bare and
blind I call out to strangers for
guidance, yet all I find are empty
handshakes and forgotten
promises. Forgive me while I
weep; it is not in you I seek
assistance but in the calling
itself—the never-answer be
answer enough. 

On the Beach 
​

Dress my mouth in
orange sin
Bless my
tongue, believe in
luck
Give your hand,
we’ll walk on glass
Tell your notes
across those sands
Place a love
beneath the sun
Capture warmth and
breathe you in Water
wait, taste my ledge
​It’s overcome and
​irreplaced 

If Not For Today ​

Wait—did you hear that—that
subtle silence, careening over
the edge? Lap up that
happenstance and drown
those misconceptions. Trap
misdirection and reverse the
impossibility. Force and forge,
then gallantly accept. ​What is
tomorrow if not for today?

Second Chance Somedays 
​

White lights and phantom
glows—how did I dine in the
dark? When did I escape
that cerement? 
Did something push me in
this right direction—from
when I only held
peripherals—maybe I fell
here myself. 
Time-lapse from night to day.
Scattered in the wind there, 
lost and found, reestablished
in the hope of second
chance ​somedays. 

 Truth in Being

 I’ve garnished my plausibilities
until they’ve been sifted and
sifted again. Trapped in mock
missionary, lost under the
brazen cloud of yesteryear. I’ve
been tight-roped...then I walked
it off. Keep me in the now,
relaxed in the warmth
of wandering could-bes—free
from the debt of false hopes;
remade in the verve of
questioning—replaced by
​the truth in being.