Sailing, tennis
Irish folk, Orange Is
the New Black, private
boats and beaches,
fresh-caught fluke.
You’re no princess,
don’t like drama,
want me as I am,
old-fashioned when
it comes to holding
doors and hands.
Photos are recent—
take a close look.
For search purposes,
I changed my age
and height: meet
me and find out
how much by.
I have a theory:
good apples grow
way up, where most men,
scared to fall, won’t go.
I’m different, though,
reckless: I tear the tags off
mattresses, engage the woman
I want in vigorous debate.
I love to watch her prove her point.
Will you climb to the top for me?
If not, please be advised,
my profile’s private. You will
face ramifications if you
put it in your poem.
Once love was a verb,
and it was my mistake
to call it someone’s name,
make it a noun. I see myself
as semi-lucky when it comes
to looks. These pics are from
my South Beach birthday bash.
As for my current status,
separated: lawyers labor as
we text. Subpoenas have been
served to put the past back
in its place, so can I hurtle
toward you at the speed
of online dating, body
in constant motion,
in no rush to rest?
Dylan, Bruce, Pacino,
Depp. Words cannot
express how well I feel
while working out!
Sopranos, House of Cards.
How blessed I am
to have young friends
who listen unbelieving
when I tell of Rolodexes,
dial phones in booths,
cassette tapes melting in
the sun. Now I’m alone,
me and my black lab, Matt.
We get along all right.
Still, I’d like again
to rev my engine at
a red light, driving
home to a human.
is the author of several chapbooks, and her full-length manuscript Most Likely to Die was published in 2014 by Poets Wear Prada Press. Her work has recently appeared in Barrow Street, Cimarron Review, Connecticut Review, Confrontation, The Cortland Review, The Evansville Review, Fourteen Hills, Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry Daily, Poet Lore, Salamander, Southern Poetry Review, The Southampton Review, Tar River Poetry, and Verse Daily, among others.
Sideris grew up in a small town in Indiana. She now lives in Brooklyn and works for The City University of New York, developing curriculum and training teachers for CUNY Start, an innovative alternative to remedial courses for first-generation college students. She holds a B.A. in English literature from Indiana University and an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.