We open on lunatia
lens hovers above her woolen ground

Lights up on Easton Winters, star of stage and film
he’s backstepping across the screen
audience snickers

(something about his being naked
makes them uncomfortable)

we pan over to the town
the townspeople asleep in their cozy
modest brick homes
snow on the rooftops
string music fades in
chimney smoke clouds the lens

As the camera closes up
we notice a candle alight in a window
a wall dissipates so we can see inside

A small boy is crying
he’s fallen to his knees
praying to a statue of
a cyan elephant,
the mammal is standing upright
holding an umbrella unfurled
above its head

the boy whispers to the statue
“Please my lordess, don’t let me become a waste”

---

Gaetano Barranca is a queer lebanese-italian-american born and raised on the pearl of the Atlantic, more commonly known as Staten Island, NY. He is a public interest lawyer by day and a writer and poet at all other times. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming from The Write Launch, BarBar, and Posture Magazine. In his free time, he thinks about going to the gym.