The Importance of Being Oscar

Photo by Ann Curran. © 2014

Photo by Ann Curran
© 2014

Oscar lounges atop a rock
across from the Merrion Square

home of dad, the queen's oculist,
mum, a poet with packed salon.

Ireland remembers its bad boy
in this dark corner of the park.

Awkward sprawl on a big boulder,
reborn in granite, shades of jade

that sparkle on dark pants and shoes,
green smoking jacket with quilted,

scarlet collar and cuffs. A sneer
from the man who makes us all laugh.

What would he think of the U.S.
where he could marry in one state

and get murdered in another?
He'd like the luscious irony,

laugh at inconsistency, note:
the gender-bender just happened.

Love, lust don't always make perfect
or exact anatomical sense.


 

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Ann Curran is author of the recently released Me First (Lummox Press) and Placement Test (Main Street Rag). Her poetry has appeared in Rosebud Magazine, U.S. 1 Worksheets, The Main Street Rag, Off the Coast, Blueline, Third Wednesday, Notre Dame Magazine, Ireland of the Welcomes, Commonweal Magazine, and others, as well as a number of anthologies. She was a staff writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Catholic, and a longtime editor of Carnegie Mellon Magazine. She is a member of the Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.