Christmas Day in the Park After the Poker Game
FROM THE ONLINE CHAPBOOK FLAMINGO PARK
Christmas Day in the Park After the Poker Game
Miriam Levine
I love to see the supple woman able to lounge on a hard bench,
eyes straying from the fashion mag almost slipping from her lap;
her hands relax—the wrists, too—and one slim ankle
crosses the other so the bare feet touch. Palm
trees score with a flush of green; the teenager’s
afro has a full house of shining copper.
There’s the man I’ve seen waiting on tables,
who’s strolling under the palms; let’s believe
he’s glad for a day off, free of uniform
black, and the tag spelling out his name.
And there goes the palm warbler with pale yellow breast,
legs like forward and backward slashes, and now
a child new to walking, pretty as Raphael’s baby
Jesus in Mary’s arms, but holding a leaf
with both hands, turning and turning it over
again, looking at it and nothing else.
Flamingo Park
Miriam Levine
2026
Flamingo Park is Miriam Levine’s gift to you. The setting of this online chapbook is the Flamingo Park neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida. The themes, for the most part, are love, death, joy—laughter and tears—the longstanding themes of lyric poetry.