FEATURED POEM: “Lobby, Al Murooj Rotana Hotel, Dubai”
Before I left my job as Managing Director, Strategy for the New York office of Euro RSCG, I traveled to Dubai several times to lead strategy trainings for the Middle East region. This poem recalls an experience I had on my first trip there and was recently published in the 16th Contest Issue of the Naugatuck River Review, where it was a semi-finalist.
“Lobby…” makes my fourth appearance in the Review, and I’m grateful for their publication of my work.
Enjoy.
LOBBY, AL MUR00J ROTANA HOTEL, DUBAI
He sat down in the armchair to my left,
she on the sofa directly across from me.
His long, white kandura was immaculate.
Even I––no textile connoisseur––could tell
the fabric was exceptional. Gold cufflinks
fastened the French cuffs at his wrists.
She was a specter in black. The long-sleeved
abaya hung down to her ankles. A thin veil
covered her head and shoulders, hiding her face.
They spoke in hushed tones, sounds unknown
to me. When she gestured or shifted her feet,
the jewelry she wore beneath her robe tinkled
like bells on the collar of a cat.
READ SOME OTHER POEMS (Click on the hot-linked grey text)
“Boy Jumping Off a Cliff,” “Audrey Hepburn and the Southern Belle Soirée,” and “Highway at Night,” South Florida Poetry Journal, Issue #33, May 2024 (scroll down; poems are alphabetical by author’s last name)
“A Friend Writes from Paris” and “Inventory,” The Inquisitive Eater (New School Food), 2024
“Red Geraniums,” The Rainbow Project (Poets Wear Prada)
“Act III” and “Lo Stadio dei Marmi, Rome," Inlandia Journal
“Sonnet with Birch Trees, Tatars, and Crayolas” Cider Press Review, Vol.25 Issue #1
“Vocabulary Lesson,” Verse Daily
“Somewhere in Georgia” and “Belated Valentine for Alex,” Under a Warm Green Linden
“The Death of Heidegger,” Penn Review
“Christ of the Frogs, with Thieves,” “Catchment,” and “Operating Instructions” Full Bleed, (Maryland Institute College of Art)
“On the Sayville Ferry,” The Westchester Review
“Boy, Stepping from the Shower, a Towel around His Waist,” Full Bleed, (Maryland Institute College of Art)
“December 31st,” The Inquisitive Eater (New School Food)
“At the Precise Moment of the Solstice” and “First Encounter,” Marathon Literary Review (Arcadia University, Philadelphia)
“Monet vs. The International Pop Art Exhibit,” Honorable Mention, E. E. Cummings Prize, New England Poetry Club.
“Cytokinesophobia,” Palette Poetry
“At the Shrine of Moinuddin Chisti,” Podium, an online publication of the Unterberg Poetry Center at New York’s 92nd StreetY
“Beneath Me,” all the sins
“Questions for Anthropophogists” - The Inquisitive Eater (New School Food)
“Predilections of the Carnivores” - The Inquisitive Eater (New School Food)
“Self-Driving Tesla Involved in Fatal Crash” - New Verse News
“Correction” - New Verse News