Naples (for Cookie Mueller)
The energy here is like a bar at 2am,
I tell her — pending violence.
We witnessed two fights
in thirty minutes;
and yet, I feel at home
here in Naples.
Pyramidal trash piles,
concatenation clothes lines,
deep-fried anchovies,
and a for-sale octopus
marooned in a kiddie pool.
Just a vaporetto away
from my homeland of Sicily,
Naples elicits
a frisson of terror
and pleasure.
The Strait of Messina,
the lacuna
separating
these people
from my own.
And this, perhaps, is why
we have chosen this
as our terminus of tourism.
Giovanni Boskovich (b. 1985) is a poet and educator born and raised in San Pedro, California. He holds an MA in Literature from California State University Dominguez Hills where he published a thesis on Emily Dickinson. His work has appeared in California Quarterly, Arteidolia Press, the Santa Barbara Literary Journal, Big Windows Review, and POETiCA REVIEW. His first full-length poetry collection, The Tautology of Water, is forthcoming in May 2025 via Moon Tide Press. In his free time, he surfs anywhere from Cabrillo Beach to Topanga.