Ben Nardolilli currently lives in New York City. His work has appeared in Perigee Magazine, Red Fez, Danse Macabre, The 22 Magazine, Quail Bell Magazine, Elimae, fwriction, Inwood Indiana, Pear Noir, The Minetta Review, and Yes Poetry. He blogs at mirrorsponge.blogspot.com and is looking to publish a novel.
Full Faith Public and Private
I am the great anti-banking corporation,
don’t trust my script any more than I do,
I lend it out but never take it back
and anyone else’s script
is always sent away unread.
No, gold and silver footings won’t help,
my back is made of nothing but paper
pressed against paper walls,
but in everyone’s paper kingdom, it’s fine.
What troubles me is my circulation.
Bloated accounts swirl in my books,
a realm of false premises and tokens
held and tied down to very real promises:
that I, by bearing myself
will have to pay back all I’ve taken.
Unblocking Appeal
Firewall, I want a pop-up ad that will save my life,
nothing about special deals on rentals,
cupcakes, or live-streaming,
this has to be bigger than consumption,
an offer for a new way of living, transcendental
yet at the same time non-metaphysical.
Even if it crashes my system, I can handle it,
my daily life is in need of a shakeup,
any rerouting is worth the slight devastation
as long as the information
flickering in front of me gives me hope,
it can demolish all my unsaved work and files.
It needs to be a straightforward sign,
a recipe for getting out of a bind of all sorts
with names for new friends and lovers,
the best numbers to reach them and their email too,
as well as the coordinates for a new city
where I can go and turn my daily ropes into reins
