I Almost Got to New York Once—by Ioana Cosma


Was on Broadway and all, and my play was gonna be produced,
and I was going to waltz into New York as if I was Elliott Smith
on Waltz no. 2. Or a supernova woman on the first moon.

Instead, I stayed, as the Killers would say,
in this two-star town ruminating on ideas and rhum,
I unfolded my flapper wings and sat quiet in my room.

New York seemed tremendous like a Rilke angel,
a terrible combination of irony and dream,
a comedy of terrors in the making.

But it wasn’t fear that stopped me,
it was a certain reluctance in crossing the forgetful ocean
it was complacency and the fact that it was too good an idea.

I almost got to New York once,
my play was there on the stage of Broadway,
but I heard the voices from the underground here calling out to me.
No, it wasn’t fear.

~

Ioana Cosma is a writer and lecturer from Romania. Her sixth volume of poetry is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in May, and her first novel will appear in Romania in July. Her play, The Men from the Mechanical Age, will be part of the JCTC Theater Festival in New Jersey. She writes poetry, short stories, novels, and plays.

Published by laurenalwan