Hypocrisy of the Lunch Hour

Hypocrisy of the Lunch Hour

James B. Nicola

My lunchbox has
a yellow face
with a thin blue painted smile.

Though the blue is true
when I luncheon by you
the yellow is off a mile.

Had I another that was red
I would choose
it to use
instead.

James B. Nicola’s poems have appeared in the Antioch, Southwest, and Atlanta Reviews; Rattle; and Barrow Street. His full-length collections (2014-2023) are Manhattan Plaza, Stage to Page, Wind in the Cave, Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists, Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond, Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies (just out). His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice magazine award. He has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller’s People’s Choice magazine award, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and ten Pushcart nominations—for which he feels both stunned and grateful. A graduate of Yale, he hosts the Hell’s Kitchen International Writers’ Round Table at his library branch in Manhattan: walk-ins are always welcome.