Chaste

-for Gregory Corso

It’s the one that takes place
In Barcelona

Panting and wide-eyed
You’re describing the novel

You’ve wanted me to love
All alleyways and wood

With a clandestine library
To hand out books

That aren’t really there
A young and vulnerable protagonist

Hunted by the shadow
Of an arsonist

Nibbling the sun climbs the air
Inhaling the sky

Threat of further
Oxygen and fire

My feet are in
The sidewalks again

Wet and hardening as walkie-
talkie tears the epigraph reads

We will know the secrets
Of our enemies

By what they choose
To burn

Paul Koniecki lives in Dallas, Texas. He was once chosen for the John Ashbery Home School Residency. His poems feature in Richard Bailey’s movie “One of the Rough” distributed by AVIFF Cannes. Paul proudly sits on the editorial board of Thimble Literary Magazine. His poems have appeared in Henniker Review, Chiron Review, Gasconade Review, As It Ought To Be Magazine, Trailer Park Review, Poetry Bay, and many more. Paul is currently finishing his MFA at VCFA.