Right
Dave Nielsen (Cincinnati University, USA)
When I was a young man,
women often told me I reminded them
of a certain movie star;
but as I grew older I began
reminding them of a different movie star,
not as famous; later, of a neighbor
or perhaps uncle from their childhood:
might I be related?
Then it was merely my voice,
a gesture or mannerism,
and not so much of a specific person they knew
as some phenomenon
of nature or contemporary life.
It was the most ridiculous thing
I’d ever heard: beautiful women
noting in me the wistfulness of a pine,
the confidence of a gas pump.
Dave Nielsen is from Salt Lake City, USA. He earned a master’s degree in English from Brigham Young University and is currently a PhD student in English at the University of Cincinnati. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Parnassus, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and other magazines.
