Intention I
by Michael Ceraso

The lap laid empty,
laden in the dust that years
of hope provided with the
it just might and we will see

and yet the present fell
from a sky of potential
like Icarus, broken and
foolish and wet with
scalding wax and

I know everyone
loves to love that word,
to hope to hope to hope

and I won’t say that it has
not given me that strength
that I so needed and desired
over the years but it is so very flawed,

tightly masked in a slant of cupric light,
inherently weakening beneath the shimmer,
like a propping up on stilts of fading twine
ululating for the true power that
is intention is intention is intention

and the mask is now loosening
at the behest of joy of joy of joy;
the one great reason for living.

Michael Ceraso was raised in Queens, New York. He currently works in the administration at the City University of New York at Queens College, where he hopes to begin an MFA in Poetry in Fall 2012. His poems have been published in Third Wednesday, Suisun Valley Review, Bare Hands, Askew Poetry Journal, The Copperfield Review and others. Golden Sparrow Literary Review has nominated him for a Pushcart Prize. He is working on a manuscript concerning the concept of ‘Intention’ as the true driving force behind happiness.