Magazine Sestina

by Peter Mladinic

In Cold War days the zines were Look

and, one cut above, people read Life.

People who voted Stevenson read Time,

suburbia, Better Homes and Gardens,

behind-closed-doors hubbies, Nugget.

and informed Catholics, the Advocate.

Father Joe sampled the Advocate

but his tastes went more to Look,

in small hours to glossies like Nugget

though he seldom looked at Life

and never at Better Homes and Gardens.

With God he spend most of his time.

Intellectuals for light reads opened Time,

the communion receivers, the Advocate,

the planters, Better Homes and Gardens.

For a little of everything there was Look

and the cut above, more popular Life.

Father Joe eyed the bodies in Nugget,

nude bodies in sinful bliss in Nugget,

that like his body was subject to time.

Mostly he looked to God to lead his life,

to God in heaven, and not the Advocate.

He liked the secular scope of Look,

and eschewed Better Homes and Gardens.

Roses in Better Homes and Gardens

bloomed as bloomed bodies in Nugget.

All one has to do is take a close look

he thought, all of life is subject to time.

Time passes, time, the devil’s advocate.

Most everyone then subscribed to Life.

Father Joe walked his path in life.

He often bowled but never gardened.

His team’s staunchest advocate,

stirred by strikes, and flesh in Nugget

in waiting rooms he perused Time,

where others preferred Life to Look.

At life’s beauty he longingly looked.

Thrills in Nugget diminished in time.

He read his Advocate in a garden.

Peter Mladinic’s fifth book of poems, Voices from the Past, is available from Better Than Starbucks Publications.

An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States.