Tom Oristaglio

The Sword in the Stone

an endlessly familiar thing

comfort

like that scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

where a scapegoat drowns over and over again

with the dishes

but can in fact escape

but only when it is funny

or that episode of Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers

where a mousey polynesian princess

perfect doppelganger for everyone’s elusive ideal object of affection

aka

a gadget

seduces both crack detectives

simultaneously

and sets her double up

to run the gauntlet

I have thought and always thought

that unconditional love meant self-denial

for the other’s happiness

if anyone can even really ever have been said to have denied themselves anything

and I wonder sometimes what requited means

or maybe consummated

or maybe requisitioned

or maybe consumer-happiness index

since I’m sure I’ve denied it you

the way you’ve denied it me

open up cartoon

volcano

let me feel your Platonic pools of

comfort

pink squirrels crying

in the cartoon air

Tom Oristaglio lives in Brooklyn, New York where he writes poetry and makes photocopy collage art. His work has appeared in Fourteen Hills, Parallax (Singing Saw Press), Anatomy & Etymology, Cricket Online Review, and elsewhere. He is an assistant editor at The Atlas Review.