Alexander Gurtis

While On a Walk After Our Internet Went Out

A generation older than us, our Diogenes from the West Coast yells at us across

the street about a naked woman with a rat in her mouth chasing a car through Skid

Row and how his mother-in-law is trading tamales for toilet paper while he kicks

back beers in Orlando and hides from virus and his wife. We spot Craig by a stop

sign on Virginia Avenue. The correct social distance two lanes of traffic apart. He

raps his knuckles against the tin stop sign as if he were a bucket drummer

summoning us to story time. Our laughter attracted a portly man wearing a Darth

Vader mask who walks towards us waving arms until we scatter like the fall

leaves Floridians always talked about but never saw.

Alexander Gurtis is a poet and critic whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Autofocus, The Shore, HAD, Rejection Letters, Saw Palm and others. A Ruth Weiss Foundation Maverick Poet Award Finalist, Alex received his MFA from the University of Central Florida and is the co-owner of the independent bookstore, Zeppelin Books.