Two Poems by Ilan Mochari

Industrial Park

Not truly an oxymoron, no
more so than amusement park
(according to my dictionary)
and not without its virtues:
diverse modes of transport (road & rail,
air & sea) all nearby; risks
of commerce ghettoized into one
vast infrastructured kingdom –
towering silver structures within
walking distance of nothing.

Yet to call it a park feels like a
blasphemy to seesaws, swings
& slides; i wonder: do new-age priests
& rabbis view these clusters
as hubristic displays like Babel’s
tower? do bold, untenured
sociologists claim that only
a generation weaned on
Lego could imagine & erect
such paint-by-number eyesores?

slow swimmer

surface caress
dint of toenail farewell
tomorrow, i say
(i am here everyday)

(it helps me get away)

a body joined my lane today
but when a free lane opened
she
excitedly
crossed the buoyant partition

plashing

(she was faster than i)

i used to stroke harder
when someone threatened
to pass me by, by

today i just let her pass, pass

yet my arms ached
like they never did
when i was younger

Ilan Mochari is the author of the novel Zinsky the Obscure (Fomite Press, 2013). Kirkus Reviews calls it: “A powerful debut with Dickensian touches.” Booklist says: “This wry debut novel takes on the classic coming-of-age saga, and it makes the reader rethink common assumptions about how young people get from here to there.” 

Ilan’s short stories have appeared in Keyhole, Stymie, and Midway Journal. Another story was a finalist in a Glimmer Train competition. He is a contributor to Cognoscenti, the online magazine for Boston’s NPR News Station. He has a B.A. in English from Yale University. He used it to wait tables for nine years in the Boston area.