10 years ago
when black predominated
I knew who I was then.

Today I declared
it gray on my
passport application.

New photo—fat neck
postal clerk—she says
“you’ll love this photo

“10 years from now.”

————

Poet, Painter  and Vietnam veteran Ed Coletti graduated from Georgetown University and the Creative Writing Masters Program at San Francisco State University (under Robert Creeley). Coletti is widely published in this country and in Europe in journals including ZYZZYVA, Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Italian Americana, and Spillway. Web presence includes ″Ed Coletti’s P3” and also ″No Money In Poetry.” Ed’s latest published book is When Hearts Outlive Minds from Conflux Press in 2011. His next will be Germs, Viruses, and Catechisms from San Francisco’s Civil Defense Publications in March 2013.