Thomas Fink


SARTORIAL IDEOLOGIES ‘68 (SONNINA)


             The father prays his son will conform
      to '68 Madison Avenue shop attire, will learn
  groomed business class virtues, even if to conform
                               means to learn   
     to live beyond means. Fear of the hippy dippy dress 
           code

                 infects the father's stream. But to dress 
                                                 according to any code 
                                               is to forget how sartorial 
ideology frays in time. The son shops haphazardly, without 
thought of sartorial 
   coordination & consistency. Without 

                environmental momentum, the father 
         waits in his suit for the son to turn into a father.



FEAR OF DEARTH


                      Is that your 

                 unnatural 
            hair color? 

                      I 
         once overheard a jerk 
             crack: “Don’t lay 

                 an exclusive on me: 
                            there are many 
                                          toilets to be 
enjoyed.” Here’s betting you steer progeny 

                                    toward their best 
                                                interest 
                                                   as it 
           jibes with yours. I’m fishing for 
                             why 

                         you’re 
     not excited.  Short of happy 
       if they 
                             hitch. Ugly 
          as scarred 
                        sandpaper? 
            Unambitious, maybe? 

                    “In the pit 
                 of a nice fertile 
                        person, 
                           a hard 
                            worker, 
                               may 
                             lurk 
                            illegible poison.” 
                           Thus   luxuriates   delay.

Thomas Fink has published 12 books of poetry— most recently Zeugma (Marsh Hawk Press, 2022) and A Pageant for Every Addiction (Marsh Hawk, 2020), written collaboratively with Maya D. Mason. His Selected Poems & Poetic Series appeared in 2016. He is the author of Reading Poetry with College and University Students: Overcoming Barriers and Deepening Engagement (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), as well as two books of criticism, and three edited anthologies. His work appeared in Best American Poetry 2007. Fink’s paintings hang in various collections. He is Professor of English at CUNY-LaGuardia.

 
 

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