When body is considered landscape
and maps are considered time, we can feel
what can’t be found through the soil between
our woes, bodies paint mountains using trees
and everything doesn’t have to be tangibly seen
like a lake mountain’s ravine passing through
the canvas. Some will call it art. I am not sure
it is necessary to dumb it down. Some will call it
nature but I think the earth is opposed to that
adjective. I will call it camouflage. We are hidden
from what can truly grow. Encouragingly.

The winner of a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Thomas Fucaloro has been on six national slam teams. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the New School and is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is an adjunct professor at Wagner College and BMCC where he teaches world lit and advanced creative writing.