Two Poems by Alyssa Stadtlander
The Kingdom Comes Like a Joke
the kingdom comes like a joke
told by a child, littered with
what do you get and what happens now
and how many how many how many
like a game
of lost and found
things like pennies and seeds and not enough
money for lunches and pearls
and those wide swaths of wheat fields
that shimmer like oil when the sun goes
down. to enter the kingdom, you must come
as a child, and every question
has the same answer sung again and again
and now, when the father’s runaway son goes
home. can you hear it, ringing, somehow
from the hidden places we deem insignificant,
the secret proclaimed
from voices that didn’t know they could sing
Alyssa Stadtlander is a writer and actress based in Boise, Idaho. Her work is published in Ekstasis, Mudfish Magazine, Fathom, and others, along with several anthologies, including An Homage to Soren Kierkegaard: A Poetry Anthology, edited by Dana Gioia and Mary Grace Mangano. Her poem, “You, Moved,” appears as text in the chamber music piece, “To the Invisible Listener,” by composer Jacob Beranek. She is the recipient of the 16th Annual Mudfish Magazine Poetry Prize, judged by Marie Howe. For more, visit her website at www.alyssastadtlander.com.
