Inhospitable Stranger by Robert Castagna

We walk the steps

to old cots and photos.

Paul Eluard tells us to stop

and not touch.

Play softly

on ourselves

delicate egos.

Flowers in a foreign language

work the words

of small spaces.

And descend slowly

into this world.

Robert Castagna teaches Pictures and Poetry at a local senior center. As a photographer, he has received the Massachusetts Cultural Council Photography Fellowship and The Artist's Resource Trust Grant. He has published a book of photographs and poems entitled Borderlands. He is a returning student of creative writing attending UMass Boston.