E. Martin Pedersen, originally from San Francisco, has lived in eastern Sicily for over 35 years. He teaches English at the local university. His poetry has appeared in Ink Sweat & Tears, Muddy River Poetry Review, Oddville, Former People, Trop Magazine and others. Martin is an alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.
Nudists
I had to wait until my father died
and mother’s jigsaw puzzle pieces
to discuss what to do with the trailer
oh yeah, that old trailer
that they used to use summers
at some campground in Oregon
I’d never been or paid attention
then it came out that it’s a nudist camp
my parents have been visiting for 30 years
I never noticed or they never told me
or they told me indirectly but I didn’t hear
oh, to imagine
my parents, male and female
volleyball and ping pong.
Nausea of Numbers
Go to a baseball game
or watch people at an airport
a county fair
the mall on Saturday
Lots of beauties, huh?
prettier than the actors we crave
Some look like friends who are dead
Some like lovers lost but not forgotten
like people in a mosque
You’ll never see them again
They gorge your visual memory
then pass on forever gone
Leaving the nausea of numbers.