Ethan Sirotko

Orchid In The Basement

The metallic chipping radiator heat, deep
with all days inside that need
touch - a kind ungiven - and the
crisp days of twisting
country roads in Fall sojourns
unwind themselves inside me
and the cold of a winter blizzard
ensconces me in a warm hug
radiator heat and the slowly
unsheathing miracle of spring
unfolds like splendid origami
of the soul, its dissolution creative
and fire in the veins and loins
supplant the radiator heat
and in the summer the natural heat
is cooled by the humming conditioner
solidifying liquid bodies evaporating
in the City mug and in the late summer
by the night beach under the cooling
starry expanse, my soul returns
hearthed in its need for warmth,
bundling itself up and some nights lying
by a friend’s fireplace caressed red by
the too near to the fire heat and it is
hard to find the right position for
the right love and I return to my
urban life of angles and curves and
jutting skyward concrete
spired magician’s fretted fingers pass me
like a coin across its knuckles,
disappear me in its hold, and I wait
for the good deep warmth of the
hissing kiss of the radiator


Inn Between

He lives in the distances
Between the measured absences
Of the net
The black slash of asphalt
That shoulders and shrugs
Without exodus
He breathes in the furrows of the compressed
       accordion
Of dirt and sky
He thinks blood in grooves between
Heart and mind
He dangles in participation between
Letter and word
Sentence and meaning
He staggers between hits - run and stay
Between egg and conception
Birth and being
Between childhood and grownup
Between vision and seeing
Ripped by rosy thorns of doing and not doing
Between happening and not happening
Caught between freedom and release
Somewhere in between
The question and answer
He dwells
Between prayer and faith
A frail slash of island
Between pounding sea and bay
Pale skinned grain of precious beach
Kites flutter
Held in distant serenity
By his racing heart
A beautiful mane
Under a caressing sun
And black canopy
Punctured with stars and moon
This exposed edge of beach
Subject to its nature
Tested daily by being and non-being
Dredging the ocean
For sand to add to its
Constant disintegration
It’s longing

He lives
In the chasm
Between him and
Me


Wings Of The Beast

Because it is this way
With us
Each a separate wing
Dipped in honey and vinegar
On either side of the beast aloft
Panicking when the other wing
Stops its flapping
Too dazzled by sun of self
To restrain ourselves
To learn whisper glide
Sustain notes easy
In mercury sky
Sweet with abstinence
Matchless compassion
Our lives braided together
By flight
Heightened fear aloft
Looking down
Beat down
Tread upon
Souls
I try to get
To your side
But the beast plunges
When we’re in total agreement


About the Author

Ethan Sirotko was born and braised in the Bronx. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of SUNY Binghamton and attended Boston College Law School. He has written several books of poetry (Aching In The Nebulae; and Searching For The Butterfly); plays (The Bachelor Party; An Even Three; and The Last Act); screenplays (Real Escape; etc); flip-books (Love/War; and Seriously/Humor Me) and a book of short stories (Distant Selves). He studied acting at HB Studio; the Gene Frankel Media Center For Performing Arts (MCPA); the George Morrison Studio; and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has acted in several off-off Broadway plays and created a new definition of the micro-second when he appeared on the tv soap opera, Search For Tomorrow. He is a photographer and artist and created the photo-card company, ESPhotos. He is also an undercover trial attorney. He aspires to be the past president of the Society For The Preservation of Gravity. His latest play, The Last Act was a finalist in the international playwriting contest held by the National Yiddish Theater - Folksbiene.

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