Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver

In Peter Mladinic’s poetry collection Files of Information on People Who Don’t Exist (BlazeVOX, October 9, 2024), the minutia of daily forgetting become memoirs set in free verse. With the precision of a reporter, Mladinic uncovers our deepest impulses, surrenders, and sins. A keen observer, he writes with such honesty, we hide our eyes and say, “I wonder if that is me!” Mladinic is both detached and empathetic. As we read, we cry because we are seen. We are finally known to exist. Enjoy this poem from the collection.

Man Outside a Store

I slip him 3 folded ones, take the thanks

in his glazed eyes home,

to sit at a table. He might offer a name,

steal the flat screen, the china.

I might ask if the sound of rain on a roof

brings to mind a mother’s face.

He has hands to wash cars and dishes.

Is my 3 abetting a man kicked by

the system? We trade lives. He pulls away

in my Jeep Wrangler. In an alley

behind housed the Tiger Rose pint I uncap

stays in its paper sack as I drink it down.