Oliver Rice has received the Theodore Roethke Prize and twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His poems have appeared widely in journals and anthologies in the United States, as well as in Canada, England, Austria, Turkey, and India. His book of poems, On Consenting to Be a Man, has been introduced by Cyberwit, a diversified publishing house in the cultural capital Allahabad, India, and is available on Amazon.
Spring 2009
Table of Contents - Vol. V, No. 1
Poetry Interview Translations Fiction Book Reviews
Oliver Rice
Lunch Break
I am liking it here these weeks,
this conjunction,
this pedestrian plaza, these towers,
the nooncrowd, anonymous community,
my deli sandwich, my share of bench.
And through there, up there,
on the eave of the cathedral,
perches the gargoyle.
Because also here, one day lately,
two surveyors were unaccountably at work
with their tripod, scope, and sighting pole.
I took them and their intent
for my fantasy.
Of impassioned geometricians
gridding the landscape in three dimensions
with beams of figmentation,
unobstructed by geology or architecture,
undeterred by utility,
projection for projection’s sake,
marvelous, pure, exquisitely ordered.
Under the purview here of the gargoyle,
impassioned nihilist,
maliciously disengaged.
I am liking it here,
this defining space,
plaza, nooncrowd,
brightly urban,
deli sandwich, share of bench.
© Oliver Rice
