Joseph Salvatore Aversano


ANATOMY OF THE EAR


my dad drew the perfect diagram
of the outer, middle, & inner ear

although he couldn't hear a thing
out of his own walls of a spiral-
ing seashell wash

of pounding
white



ON AN ANTIQUE FOLK RUG FROM BALIKESIR

three trees of life
                 w/ ram horn-like

branches on a field
                      of red dye w/ small

eyes stitched in to
           ward off the evil eye

& w/ one end badly
                         frayed to finish

            their work

THE LAST ICE AGE THAW


spring begins w/ the flow of sap
from long eons

of being trapped in Baltic amber

& appears in Spain
by means of networks of exchange

till melting gold



AJAHN CHAH & HIS SKELETON


The thing
I've been running from

is the thing
I've been walking w/

the thing
I've been sleeping w/

whose teeth
I've been brushing

w/ care.



Joseph Salvatore Aversano currently lives with his wife Asu in the Aegean port city of Izmir (ancient Smyrna). He has recently completed a master’s thesis study of local Meter/Cybele cults during the Roman Imperial Period in Central Asia Minor. His poetry has been published in numerous journals including Bones, E-ratio, Modern Haiku, and in previous issues of Otoliths.
 
 
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