Volume 4, No. 2
Enjoy these two poems by William Doreski which explore the merging of past and present and the effects of time on our various landscapes.
Peasant of My Present
by William Doreski
The peasant of my ancestry is the peasant of my present. You ask if this means potatoes lumped on a folded horizon, cattle groaning, aware of their fate. The steppes of the East cough up global warming gases no one thought risky until recently. You don’t believe I’ve descended from a landscape of such depth. You think me an urban critter looting building sites for copper and smoking French cigarettes while shady women toil for me. We’ve read the same novels, seen the same movies, dozed through long and expensive operas in which the soprano dies so pathetically our inner organs cringe with grief. I never want to travel so far east the sun doesn’t finish rising until its acolytes have fallen face down in a form of worship certain to trouble your sleep. Ancestry scattered a few odd genes, but we’re mostly of the present, which blows down from the Arctic with a colorless taste of chill.
Remembering Rome
by William Doreski
In the fog of dawn, stone arches seem to leap across my pasture, This illusion collapses as soon as I recall the ruined Forum beetled all over with tourists like me, our cameras winking with an intelligence we lacked. Rome has seen regime change since then, the party of rigor mortis now in charge. No one is in charge of my back pasture. The fog has lifted to expose a silence thick enough to spread on toast. I’m facing another day of errands, my antique body sprawled across the landscape with honest but pointless effort. I should stay home brewing coffee in the morning, tea late in the day when the senses have all dead-ended in books I’ve been reading for months. Maybe I shouldn’t stay home. Maybe one last trip to Italy to fondle collapsed stonework and eye the small green lizards that for centuries have aligned evolution with human decay.
About the Author
William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has taught at several colleges and universities. His most recent book of poetry is Cloud Mountain (2024). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell’s Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in various journals.
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