Unlike the hunk lugging
his Hefty bag at Brighton Beach

who sings wadawadawada,
get yer wada hea

& when you wave him over,
rolls his sottovoce r—

ice-cold Corrrona with lime
if you’re lucky, this Prospect

Park vendor dozes under
a sycamore, a single bottle

of Poland Spring placed
on his baby blue cooler.

Two dollars, you think,
thirsty, but don’t inquire.

Hilary Sideris has recently published poems in The American Journal of Poetry, Bellevue Literary Review, Free State Review, Gravel, The Lake, Main Street Rag, Rhino, Room, Salamander, and Southern Poetry Review. Her new book Animals in English, poems after Temple Grandin, is just out from Dos Madres Press.