2 Poems
By Gerard Sarnat. Published on March 9, 2023.
Make Love Not War 2
Dad’s best friend had three beautiful daughters,
one of whom I dreamed of.
1957, my first semester in the fifth grade,
Andrea went to Stanford to become a pediatrician
or a patrician, the difference wasn’t exactly clear.
If she wouldn’t sleep with me (whatever that meant),
perhaps it’d be possible to connive
to get her to practice Salk’s new polio shots in my butt.
Which didn’t happen, but what did is
her father – who treated me like the son he didn’t have
— gave me a Lugar he took off a German during the war.
Just past the toy gun stage, the pistol got stashed in my closet.
Eleven years later, at Stanford Med School myself
during the peak of the anti-Viet Nam mobilization,
I got the idea to make A’s Pop take the revolver back
Which gave me the excuse to go over to her Palo Alto house.
Sure my pony tail was cool enough to sweep her off her feet
when I described burning my draft card, Andrea shooed me away.
Chekhov’s Gun/Flights Of Fancy tanka
COVID lockdown born,
First trip to the beach, I asked
His dad, “What surprised
Evan most?” “Seagulls. He was
Most impressed by those seagulls.”
Gerard Sarnat’s a Pushcart and Best of Net Award nominee. Gerry's work’s been widely published in magazines and journals, including the Brooklyn Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Slippery Rock, The New York Times; Northwestern, Pomona, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, North Dakota, McMaster, Maine, British Columbia, Chicago and Virginia university presses. He’s a Harvard College and Medical School-trained physician, Stanford professor, and healthcare CEO. Currently he is devoting energy/resources to deal with climate justice, and serves on Climate Action Now’s board. Gerry’s been married since 1969 and has three kids, six grandsons — and looks forward to future granddaughters. gerardsarnat.com