Father/Son Q&A

How old am I?

Embraces.

Are molecules made of electrons?

We have to run naked into the sea to understand what all this means.

For example, why are there 13 dimensions in your brain?

Because a drum conducts electricity and can take you to a different time.

Then please tell me, why are you bald now?

I don’t know. I’m just a pilgrim inside a blue egg.

— Robert Pesich and Nikola Sava Pesich

Signal to Noise

“Stop Tata! Stop right here!”, my son announces
as we return home from a long evening walk.

He walks to the edge of yet another garden
stretching out his arms
as if to hug someone invisible.
“Hello Flowers!” he announces.

With his face, he caresses calla lilies, lavender
even the dandelions blooming in the gutter.
He whispers to them. It takes some time,
a secret between him and the flowers.

When an understanding is reached, he stands up
and announces loud enough for the neighbors to hear,
“Thank you Flowers! Good night!”

“C’mon Nikche, let’s go home,
that’s enough.” I say, impatient, turning to go.
“Shh!” the response as we walk away.
“What are they saying to you?”
“Shh! You talk too much. You are noise!”

— by Robert Pesich

Robert Pesich is the president of Poetry Center San José, coordinator of The Well-RED Reading Series, and editor/publisher for Swan Scythe Press. His work has recently appeared in The Redwood Coast Review, Aperçus Quarterly, Slipstream, The Bitter Oleander, Skidrow Penthouse, Red Wheelbarrow and Círculo de Poesía (Mexico) among others.

In 2009, he was awarded the Littoral Press Poetry Prize, a fellowship from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and was a resident at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program as well as in January 2013. In 2004, he was awarded an artist fellowship from Arts Council Silicon Valley. In 2001, he authored the chapbook Burned Kilim (Dragonfly Press). A second collection of poetry, Model Organisms at Zero Hour is in submission.