Laura Foley

Cavafy

So much work awaits,
my small room littered with books,
half-written papers, mid-unit
evaluations, applications, essays.

Still I go out,
sit in the coffee shop all day
reading Cavafy’s poems,
lost like him
to all but the sensuous life.

I cross slippery streets,
slide down two avenues
through icy tunnels,
under low-leaning branches,
to reach the old Greek coffee shop.

The great gay poet
wrote of his shame, his
strong desire for men,
could have been killed
for his love.

My window seat
offers a view out—or in—
as ice drops
from the roiled heavens.





Laura Foley is the author of five books of poetry. Joy Street won the Bisexual Writer’s Award; The Glass Tree won a Foreword Book of the Year Award. Her poems have appeared in journals and magazines including Valparaiso Poetry Review, Inquiring Mind, Pulse Magazine, The Mom Egg Review and in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology. She won the 2016 National Outermost Poetry Prize, judged by Marge Piercy; Harpur Palate’s Milton Kessler Memorial Poetry Award; and the Grand Prize for the Atlanta Review’s International Poetry Contest. She lives with her partner Clara Gimenez among the hills of Vermont with their three big dogs.