By Peter Marra
Christmas break.
aged 13, a boy,
on 86th street in
brooklyn, ny waits
under the el
(where they filmed that chase
scene in the french connection).
twilight hush light snow
a tall woman
walks toward him
black
cashmere
cape
black shiny boots stiletto
noel
clench
noel
teeth
noel
in the store
windows
slight flutes
playing in his head
she smiled a wet smile
as she passed by
and the girlie magazine
he had hidden
under his coat made his
chest / stomach
contract fall.
her silhouette and time
sliced his mind
train rumble scream,
fired fierce through and through
then she was gone
time to go home:
where daddy rips the
lights off the tree
because mommy bore a
hole through his brain
earwig drilling
wishing to slice from ear to ear
fired fierce through and through
neurons ripped and
discarded until tomorrow
He lay down on the bed
beneath a blanket of tarot cards
becoming one with Joan of Arc
as she listened to the angels’ call
float
fall
falling
Clutching at Straws 
Well….I feel this as if it were almost my own….beautiful and dark. Hard and real. I imagine a young boy….your words pictures create a life that i can imagine, though i am female.
Longing and dar,k not dark in evil but cloaked in a sadness or down ness….
I feel this piece – clutching at straws – I do.
Thank you.
the boy coming of age, the girly magazine, noel, it’s christmas. imagery jumps out, the flutes,
then the dark description of the parents
still there are the flutes and tarot cards and Joan of Arc and the angel’s call….the sexuality and the spirituality are not separate…