Stephen Kopel

  Murano

  steps out of a suitcase
              bigger than her britches
              no sturdy yardarm to steady
              the pitched battle of her nerves
              
              tosses anger overboard~
              svelte anchor of petty hurts~
              in the venison canal
              where meter eaters
              lunch with e. coli,
              poled passengers fulminate,
              
              and, she,
              astride a mute buoy bobbing,
              recalls that loquacious bully
              in her mom’s glove compartment 
  teaching her to belch
              now buried in Venetian glass 

              suitcase tents,
              in case of breakage

              Stephen Kopel’s work has appeared in Margie, 
  Free Lunch, Aethion, the Antigonish Review, and 
  elsewhere and has been nominated for the Pushcart 
  Prize. He created, and runs, the Word Painters 
  poetry events at branch libraries in San Francisco.