these 
are my suitors this evening
tomorrow
a new batch of matches will alight 
another brief flicker
        we will look each other up and down
        peer sideways through 
        the looking glass
        replace our irises
        with i.r.s. agents and noses to the 
 pavement we will choose 
 soulmates from a stack of cards
 algorithmed to find true love

algorified we will try to return
to our nature, to bask in greens
only to find seminal images plastered
onto instruction manuals and rotted
duck, honey I’m home

There is no place like being in love
people tell you all the time, they say
there is no place like being in love but
love is not the answer
it is the feeling you get
when you’ve lost your nerve
you will submit against your
                will, act
like teen icon, 
slash tires and run
     make names for 
bodyparts
and laugh esoterically 
at one’s bond

there is no connection in these 
connections, nothing sticks
I am lauded for my smiles in 
                      the face of

I make whispers of sweetnothings
                to noone , as im searching
               for unknown variables
I scoff at a five year plan
not because I don’t want one
                                 sounds

     lonesome.

          there is no place like being alone

people tell you all the time
they say

thank you,
for having the nerve 

---

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.