UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/JONATHAN HAYES


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY

JONATHAN HAYES

Fame

On a sidewalk in NYC,
my father told me that I was
not destined to fame or fortune.

In the academy, a professor
said that if you are not anthologized
you will go extinct.

Darwinism of letters does not concern me.

A plausible reason for self-destruction, does.

Apartment

I am humble,
as I act as host
between an urban
Heaven or Hell –

just a glance
away from each other.

Summer

We stood by the edge of the Hudson River –

you thought of our life together
on this new island,

and I reminisced of a Langston Hughes' poem,
where he heard the song of suicide

in the water's reflection.