These three poems by Paul Ilechko reflect on different aspects of the modern world, particularly in an urban environment, and how the least fortunate among us are most drastically affected by it…
by: Paul Ilechko
The Shadow of the Towers
The towers quiver tall and ornate
blood-washed by the setting sun
each depth of shadow or flicker
of light a delicate touch
of careful pigment it’s not a city
you would ever want to live in
there’s a woman slumped
in a bathtub swiveling the faucet
with her toes replenishing heat
as her water turns cold she’s reading
Kafka unaware of the passage
of time she hums to herself
an old traditional song
that reminds her of childhood
she sings of the towers and how
the light glazes the roof tiles
as angry voices are heard across the quarter
she’s briefly happy as she stands
and grabs a towel wrapping it
around herself and stepping from
the tub outside her window
the city is darkly haunted a blood stain
spreads across the sidewalk
but by morning it will probably
have all been rinsed away.
Transactional
For a long time
it was all about payment
a constant outpouring
a trickle become a flood
dollar after dollar
becoming hundreds
and then thousands
until sudden silence
emptiness
zooming out
to focus on two poles
taut across a shared space
rotational
spinning
green loses its color
at high enough speeds
eventually light slows down
the last drops squeezed out
until the event horizon hardens.
Head Filled With Monsters
Morning and lines begin to form outside the bakery
a silver glitter of knifepoint as sunlight strikes the blade
the barber arriving on his bicycle swaying slightly
into the breeze voices raised in song leak like vapor
from the open doors of a church intermingling with
the hoarse purring of electric engines and there he was
again a head full of monsters trapped within a vagrant
world of stinking fish and dying plants somewhere
inside his jittering brain are fragments of the identity
that once defined him before the drugs before
the sleepwalking on damaged feet that left no prints on muddy
ground light dims as the sun dips cloudside and swiftly
reappears but in that brief instant he has crossed
the avenue his back towards you as he scurries riverwards.
Paul Ilechko is a British American poet and occasional songwriter who lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. His work has appeared in many journals, including The Bennington Review, The Night Heron Barks, Atlanta Review, Permafrost, and Pirene’s Fountain. His first book is scheduled for 2025 publication by Gnashing Teeth Publishing.
