Walking South Down Ninth Avenue at 7:30AM
Hell’s Kitchen is starting to cook.
The Greeks are serving breakfast:
the sizzle of bacon, a question mark
curling on the pan like the moustache
of a vaudeville villain
out to evict
and steal the girl.
But my rent is paid.
My girl is home.
I am careless
in this slow and perfect morning,
which reveals itself
one sunnyside eyeblink
at a time.
Stephen Thomas Roberts (he/him/his) is a first year poetry MFA student and lives in Dutchess County. He is delighted to be a part of the vibrant writing community at Sarah Lawrence. His poetry has been published, or will be published, in SLANT, Blue Unicorn, Gargoyle, Naugatuck River Review, and Poetry Salzburg Review. And now, Love and Squalor.