George Yatchisin

Mundane Wonder

Somehow the magician
inked an audience member
upon her closed hand with-
out her knowing, an X

pressed inside her clenched
fist, gentler than a kiss,
and he jokingly insisted
it was permanent marker.

How could it not be for her,
this impossible tattoo he tossed
after acting as if he peeled
it off his own hand?

Even as his evening’s assistant,
a supposedly psychic dove,
stared blank-eyed, hoping only
to return to its cup of seeds and cage.

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George Yatchisin is the author of Feast Days (Flutter Press 2016) and The First Night We Thought the World Would End (Brandenburg Press 2019). He is co-editor of the anthology Rare Feathers: Poems on Birds & Art (Gunpowder Press 2015), and his poetry appears in anthologies including Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies (Everyman’s Library 2019).