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Their Own Confetti: poems by Juan Pablo Mobili


















confetti, image by Golda Falk, on Pixabay



Surrender



I’m ready to give myself up,


I come out with my hands

high in the air


and see what wants to blossom,

what needs to finally take a deep breath.




________________





They Told Me My Mother Went to Heaven,


but I knew she was likely to be late,


that she’d stop at a beauty parlor first.

— who’d want to meet God


with chipped polish on her nails

from hanging for dear life.




_________________





Now in the News



Some of my molecules are still bidding farewell

while the new recruits rush in to take over,


I note on my calendar those dates before the joy

or the tragedy, before the whisper in my head


became deafening, impossible to ignore, happiness

and sadness deserving their own particular confetti


falling on our hair, easy to brush off because it’s light,

and harder to forget because of its stubbornness.




_______________________





Resilience



The engineer studies the wind

and designs a bridge that will last forever.


I envy the bridge, born to be tough and elastic,

ready for what drives over its back.


I wonder if the bridge forgets the burden

of rush hour or enjoys the light flow


when most cars remain at home and

children learn to do cartwheels in their rooms.


I envy the engineer who chose to be a student

of the rigidity and flexibility of steel.


I know I will never be a bridge

and it’s too late to become an engineer,


but I choose to keep my eyes open

when the wind turns from breeze to gust,


my spine willing to bear the heavy traffic, firm

and supple like the kid doing cartwheels.





____________________________________





Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires, and adopted by New York. His poems appear in Spirit Fire Review, The American Journal of Poetry, The Worcester Review, The Banyan Review, Monoliths (Australia) and Impspired (UK), among many others. His work received an Honorable Mention from the International Human Rights Art Festival, and has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net, in 2020

and 2021. His chapbook, Contraband, was published in April, 2022. Learn more about his chapbook at: Contraband - The Poetry Box

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