Peter TOMASSI was born in Plainfield, N.J. in 1969, and has pursued studies Drew and Columbia universities. He is the founder of Helvidius, a journal pf politics and rhetoric. His work has appeared in numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Beauty for Ashes Poetry Review, The Cafe Review, Central California Poetry Journal, The Comstock Review, Magma (London), Lynx Eye, Newark Review, Paris/Atlantic (France), The Pittsburgh Quarterly, PoetryMagazine.com, Porcupine Literary Arts Magazine, Wings, Word Salad, and Yeast for Food. His debut book of poetry, Mixing Cement, was recently published by Thunder Rain.

NEW JERSEY

Gum balls strike the patio. The
trees in our backyard are so far away,
I can see only the branches
fan their trunks in the humidity,

setting the wind free to roam,
sheepishly, brush its mid-day film
over the redwood set, the forest green
vinyl chairs & the umbrella,

as if the wind was an unskilled burglar
clumsily fingering our things,
leaving everything valuable,
everything worthless.

Even my mother's skin, sun-burnt,
ushering vodka through its pores,
is stroked by his fingers,
then left for older, wilder yards,

for the colors of other women,
over the fence where another patio
plays host to his sweaty touch,
where another child joins my breath,

the grass, bulbs, spores
of careful gardens that lap the periphery,
where we dream & float to meet them,
paintbrushes in our hands.

Soon we'll be old enough
to form layers with our little art,
pilfer another neighborhood
as gangs of slumbering thieves.