Poetry by Ricky Garni

Amy Guth



LOU

It doesn’t matter if Lou Costello’s last words were “That’s the best ice cream soda I’ve ever tasted.” 
What matters is that someone wrote those words. Not just those words, but all the words – these words: 
“Lou Costello’s last words were ‘That’s the best ice cream soda I’ve ever tasted.’” 

Someone loved Lou Costello and said: That’s the best ice cream soda I’ve ever tasted, said Lou Costello.





FAITH

The piano has 11,528 parts
The first person who made one
must have had so much faith
in its goodness

He worked really hard to make 
one beautiful key and then play it 
and say “OK then” and then 
took a little break

And then did it again
87 more times and then 
smiled and said
Phew.

Of course he did.
And then he did it
again and, again. Making
a piano, it’s just like

walking through the desert
You just can’t stop once you start

Nothing is better than the desert
except 

a brand new piano
with a tiny tulip 
atop it.





ROAD TRIP

I stopped inside a convenience store to buy a coke at midnight tonight. I love convenience stores at midnight because they make you feel like you are on a road trip even when they are just a few miles from your house. You look outside to see if there are a lot of bags in your backseat but there aren’t because you are just coming home from a movie. But it makes you think how great it would be to get in the car and rather than go home and drink your coke just drive and drive and drive to a place like Montana. A place like Montana because not many people I know (including me) actually know that much about Montana. If I drove to Montana I would know a hundred more things about it by the first hour I arrived than any part of my life before that time. I would step outside and look at the beautiful sky and buy a coke at the first convenience store I found and I would sigh. And my backseat with be filled with suitcases, filled with diamonds.





​
CAPSULE

Helen sat in her car and didn’t move. I opened the door and she didn’t turn. Helen was silent for a moment 
and then she said “Gershwin” and then was silent again. A minute later Helen said “I used to love to turn on 
the radio and hear Gershwin.”




Bio: Ricky Garni was born in Miami and grew up in Florida and Maine. He works as a graphic designer by day and writes music by night. COO, a tiny collection of short prose printed on college lined paper with found materials such as coins, stamps and feathers, was recently released by Bitterzoet Press.