"Postcard from the Smithsonian" by Amy Schmitz
Ekphrasis poetry in response to Bar Italia, by Cadmus
Postcard from the Smithsonian after Bar Italia, by Paul Cadmus The carabiniere looks straight at me, watchful or just wary. If the female patron’s hair draped just a little more toward earth she could be careless. Carefree. Older tourists look around— ‘is that architecture from this century?’ Who knows the city’s history when you come from a town named after a river named for a neck? A jug of wine weighs down my back. I brush hair from my ear as if I’d like to hear you better. What did you say? You say you’ve finally OD’ed with a needle in your arm. Or you say you saw a fox one morning in November. But then upon reflection maybe it was your imagination. We come from a town with a willow and a trickle of a creek in the farthest corner of the yard. I could be somewhere eating gelato in the piazza. What is fear if not frozen? Everyone wears white. The color of cream. The color of blow. The color of museum sculptures. A shirtless man speaks: ‘Go away, Americans.’ I already am away. A docent makes a move as if he means to touch me. What if you were still alive in the backyard near the willow, the creek and Virgin Mary statuette? What if I’d taken you with me when I left?
My first collection of poetry, Border Crossing, was published in April 2018. My work has been published in Quiddity, High Plains Literary Review, Sugar House Review, Kestrel, San Pedro River Review, Borderlands: Texas Literary Review, Louisiana Review, Askew, Poetry International, Freshwater and elsewhere. I have won awards from Poetry International, the Women’s National Book Association and the CNY chapter of the National League of American Pen Women. I hold an MFA from George Mason University.