2 Poems by Mel Waldman

THE OTHER

Inside Central Park, within the Wildlife Center,
the other

watches Japanese snow monkeys
from a distance,

&
embraces his invisibility,

cupping it in crippled hands

while tourists pass by, oblivious of the tiny man
gazing at the Japanese macaques, on their island,

through the magical eye of the camera lens;
while clutching pain;

invisible man, empty, eerie, and alone,
&

far away, in the sphere of the forgotten
but still, floating in the green-brown

swirling eyes of the pink-faced mystics of joy,
Japanese snow monkeys

caressing and holding
the other

in a celestial womb,
rocking him back and forth in a mystical embrace,

seeing and loving him unconditionally
in the vanishing moment


FUCKING THE DAWN


Curled up in my womb-chair,
I taste the night,

as sweet as an old fashioned
vanilla malted,

cascading down
my swirling tongue,

&
I’m safe in the darkness,

the soothing vastness
that conceals my skin,

&
swallows my spirit,

caressing it inside
the void,

where it sleeps and resurrects
itself,

perched on a mammoth breast
of eternity,

sucking its hard nipple, and
drinking the milk and honey
of bliss.

Yes, the darkness soothes me,
but still, I fear the dawn,

for it beckons me with daylight
and expectation,
dazzling sunrise and exposure,
and naked truth.

I fear the dawn, but can I fuck it
and be free?

I dream of fucking the dawn,
opening the light,

fucking the dawn,
penetrating the sphere of opalescence,

fucking the dawn,
thrusting and thrusting and thrusting

through the veil into the flower of
creation,

the white rose of light,
fucking the dawn tomorrow


Bionote

Mel Waldman is a psychologist, poet, and writer whose stories have appeared in numerous magazines including HARDBOILED DETECTIVE, HARDBOILED, DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE, ESPIONAGE, THE SAINT, DOWN IN THE DIRT, CC&D, PULP METAL MAGAZINE, INNER SINS, YELLOW MAMA, and AUDIENCE. His poems have been widely published in magazines and books including LIQUID IMAGINATION, A NEW ULSTER, THE BROOKLYN LITERARY REVIEW, THE BROOKLYN VOICE, BRICKPLIGHT, THE BITCHIN’ KITSCH, CLOCKWISE CAT, CRAB FAT MAGAZINE, SKIVE MAGAZINE, ODDBALL MAGAZINE, ON THE RUSK, POETRY PACIFIC, POETICA, RED FEZ, SQUAWK BACK, SWEET ANNIE & SWEET PEA REVIEW, THE JEWISH LITERARY JOURNAL, THE JEWISH PRESS, THE JERUSALEM POST, HOTMETAL PRESS, MAD SWIRL, HAGGARD & HALLOO, ASCENT ASPIRATIONS, and NAMASTE FIJI: THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY. A past winner of the literary GRADIVA AWARD in Psychoanalysis, he was nominated for a PUSHCART PRIZE in literature and is the author of 11 books. Four of his mystery, fantasy, and horror stories were published by POSTSCRIPTS, a British magazine and international anthology, in November 2014. He recently completed an experimental mystery novel inspired by one of Freud’s case studies and is looking for an agent. He has been inspired for decades by his patients and their heroic stories of trauma and survival.