Rita Stein

Big Name

When you become a big name

then you get a big headache

If I was smart enough to see

through a blind eye then I

should know better than to

cry, but it’s a passion, I like

to cry, now that I can

I lost everything when I lost

metaphor. I had a huge love

and that went too

I believe that everyone wants

what I have. I get tickets in

advance and find there’s only

about five of us at the show

or reading or anywhere I go

I’m a broken wheel, living past

my prime. It’s a good thing I have

a small name, that I don’t need

big words, that I like love in 

monthly installments, that

people think I’m funny

I wish I were more manly, that

I knew how to break open a cloud,

kiss and not tell, stop feeling, but

when I see my name walking away 

without me, I just can’t let her go

Rita Stein is a librarian and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has had poems published in Stained Sheets, Blue Collar Review, The Dariens, Loch Raven Review and Revolutionesque.