Joe Dolce: ‘Alcoholic Nose’, ‘Brown Snake Crossover’ and ‘Mowing the Fields of Elysium’

Alcoholic Nose

Rhinophyma, subtype
of skin condition, rosacea,
chronic inflammation,
swollen nose, red and bumpy,
once thought due to alcoholism—
that theory debunked.

Definitive cause a mystery.
Evidence points to genetics,
in family members of English, Scottish,
ethnic Eastern European descent.

For those with rosacea,
alcohol worsens symptoms,
enlarging blood vessels,
creating a flushed look—
red wine the worst culprit.

Relief: a glass of water between drinks,
spirits diluted with seltzer,
teetotalism.

Joe Dolce

Brown Snake Crossover

Waltzing the track,
I catch my balance, back-
stepping with a Whoa!
as the luster rope shimmies, slow-
ly S-bending into bush,
before I can blink,
slink-
ing off, our pas-de-deux
kaput.

Joe Dolce

Mowing the Fields of Elysium

Brilliant Buddha gold
alchemy of yellow & white, the soul-
colour of triumph, from Calf to Ring,
the Mean, the Ratio, the Rule,
the truest lode said to rest at earth’s core,
now blowing here in two-metre high dry grass.

Aeneas and I toss a Bough on the Arched Door,
pull-start the Red Rover Regal 4-stroke hand push,
three tugs to turn it over,
wheels raised to Highest Setting,
into the Great Rush of Whirling,
blades threshing, carats, leaves, flakes, dust,
catcher-catching the coinage, straw-scattering
aurum shining dawn, ausum glowing dawn,
the swarming 40 degree smoulder.

Homer said, of the Elysian plain,
no snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain.
The sun is murder.
I pause, sun struck in Fleece,
my bucket-hat soaked,
then, indoors for relief,
cold water in a blue claw-footed bath.
The Esky of the Afterlife
yields an ice-cold XXXX Gold.
A few minutes lie down,
by the waters of Okeanos,
near Aeolus’s rattling pedestal fan,
then back to work.

It’s said these bright plains border
nearby Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness,
between the Clifts of Tedium and Apathy,
this narrow square of the Blessed and Happy,
our unbaled bush Champs-Élysées.

Joe Dolce