No Runway Required

How come

no one ever

asks,

What are you

metaphysically

wearing right now?

Are you basking

in translucent skivvies,

rocking spangled self-awareness,

dream-dropping golden drawers

and grace-lace in multi-storied tatters,

are you so flagrantly naked right now,

candle-wax-drip in a homuncular beehive

on a Saturday night in heaven,

that you are rising, unleavened,

toward a new species of self-hood?

Are you clad in night-armor,

clank-stepping to the beat of your own private drummer?

Are you on fire, from the waist down? the neck up?

Is the tender, supple geography of your body

high-classing it three-piece-prayer style?

Is your invisible overcoat thick as chagrin

and molasses? Do you feel warm? safe?

Sick of existential hand-me-downs

which come from another time, another place?

Who exactly is wearing pink bunny slippers

from the dustbin of memory,

fuzzy brown sweaters

loved to a state of sentimental holiness,

sleeveless hearts exposed to scarring

and sun?

We live in a world of private parts

and cyclical makeovers,

and yet how rare it is

for someone to ask,

What are you metaphysically wearing

right now?

About John Biscello

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, writer, poet, performer, and playwright, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001. He is the author of four novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, and No Man’s Brooklyn; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His produced, full-length plays include: LOBSTERS ON ICE, ADAGIO FOR STRAYS, THE BEST MEDICINE, ZEITGEIST, U.S.A., and WEREWOLVES DON’T WALTZ.

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