Frank S. Palmisano III

Philanthropy

In the donut shop,
it's the same crowd again.
The corner monopolized by
a drunk, nursing a cold coffee,
eyes glazed in a stupor
he fights to resist.
A plain lady hovers over the
counter, argues that she
wants more for her money,
waves a hefty billfold at
the clerk, a one-month-old
refugee from Iran, who can only smile
and offer her another napkin.
In the movie of my mind, they kiss
and make up.

In front of me, a young girl
festooned in a cream-colored
half-shirt, swings her hair around
her back like a heavy bag,
and she is flirting with me,
her lips painted in fuchsia,
a face so full of color I think
the baker emptied his squeeze
tubes into her mold,
and I can't decide if this donut
is really worth the trip.

But it is not for me, but rather
the man outside, skin buttered
and soaked in chocolate,
ashen rolls of hunger at his stomach
he wants to trade for jelly and
apple-cinnamon. A favor I'm
happy to do for him, even if
his request was just an excuse
to see what he can get; testing
what's out there, a
one-month-old refugee to the
streets.

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Frank S. Palmisano III is a 27-year-old poet whose work has appeared in close to 100 poetry journals and other mediums, including Rattle, Wisconsin Review, and Bender. In his practical life, he works as a technical writer for the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and just finished up a teaching assignment as an adjunct professor of English at Towson University. His first book of poetry, tentatively titled Synaptic Misfires and Other Tortured Tales From the Left Brain is due out this year through JVC Books. Despite these accomplishments, his most impressive moment came recently when his admission application was rejected by the Creative Writing Program at the University of Maryland.

h