JIMMY PAPPAS

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Falling Apart​

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I lost my ears in our hyacinth garden,
unable to tell if your voice came from
the pink blossoms or the purple. You were

not home to smell them. I used rusty clippers
to cut a rose from the bush you labored over,
then placed it in a thin crystal vase.

I set a single place at the kitchen table,
a glass of merlot and one of our finest plates
decorated with basil leaves. In the center, my nose.

I placed my lips with the red licorice sticks.
Nothing on TV, I dropped my eyeballs
into a candy dish for guests to eat.

I lay down on the couch and removed my legs.
I swapped my mind for a bottle of pills.

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Jimmy Pappas won the Rattle Chapbook Contest with Falling off the Empire State Building and the Readers Choice Award for “Bobby’s Story.” He has two Pushcart nominations and a Touchstone nomination. His poetry book Scream Wounds tells the stories of veterans, mostly from Vietnam. He moderates a weekly, themed Zoom event called “A Conversation with Jimmy and Friends” that encourages audience participation.

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