Alexandre Nodopaka Poems

This is no longer the country
where I immigrated
nor the moral nation I contributed
my lifelong professional mechanical
...

invented better
when I was young
than Rum & Coke!
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Drive-by shootings never bother me.
They are cops and robbers and
hooligans in cinema noir fairy tales.
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made Modigliani famous by the time
he was 36 and I at 79 with more than
3 times his, my figurines accumulate
storage fees.
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from the fantastic
is the power of imagination
overcome by the experience
of manipulated reality.
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I'm sorry or is it excuse me that I speak Russian
with a slight French accent.

That language is to me a most sophisticated of tongues.
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saved me and my sister
from a life of doldrums
when I was a very young
teenager.
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for the preceding
commentaries
and the ensuing banter
dealing with birds
...

It's been a long hot drive through Spain. It's the end of June. I am free from school from the middle of June through the end of September. We're on our customary yearly vacation and stop here and there between Casablanca and Paris. Our final destination. No reservations! Those were the days!

This time it's in a Costa del Sol village named Torremolinos just a short distance south of Malaga. That's way before there was anything over 3-stories high and an overnight stay cost five bucks allowing for disinflation. So here we are, lounging outside the restaurant, by the swimming pool when other guests look up at something behind us.
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I received three rejections this month
of my five submissions of art. I promise
myself not to submit so many in a month
because it's heart breaking news to fail
...