Unknown Alternate
Poetry by David Anthony Sam
Unknown earth, unknown alternate,
place of another's eyesight,
unknown planet of another's path
where the same things don't happen
and the same faces try on new masks.
Stages turn behind the fire curtain,
and quick change artists,
the same actors on new plots,
memorize new dialogue, and tip
their minds to the audience.
Walked out of my door today...
found I'd borrowed the wrong clothes
and the wrong face as well.
Unknown earth, unknown alternate;
I have no script and improvise badly.
place of another's eyesight,
unknown planet of another's path
where the same things don't happen
and the same faces try on new masks.
Stages turn behind the fire curtain,
and quick change artists,
the same actors on new plots,
memorize new dialogue, and tip
their minds to the audience.
Walked out of my door today...
found I'd borrowed the wrong clothes
and the wrong face as well.
Unknown earth, unknown alternate;
I have no script and improvise badly.
About the writer
David Anthony Sam lives in Virginia with his wife and life partner, Linda. His poetry has appeared in over 90 journals and his poem, “First and Last,” won the 2018 Rebecca Lard Award. Six of his collections are in print including Final Inventory (Prolific Press 2018), Finite to Fail: Poems after Dickinson, 2016 Grand Prize winner of the GFT Press Chapbook Contest, and Dark Fathers (Kelsay Books 2019). He teaches creative writing at Germanna Community College, from where he retired as President in 2017 and serves as the Regional VP on the Board of the Virginia Poetry Society.
|