Fall 2010, Volume 9

Poetry by Tanya Olson

Manhattan

It is an early morning in February and I shout out loud,
‘When the hell did it get so cold?’
The winter always sneaks up on you here.
One day you’re driving through Vermont
gazing at the leaves changing colors
like nowhere else, sipping wine in a beaten down bed and breakfast,
and the next you are curled up in your bed in Manhattan
with a blanket over your face cursing at the radiator
that only wants to work in the summer.

My apartment displayed the usual sacrifices
one makes to live in Manhattan with an income under six figures,
too little space, no storage, a tiny kitchen you can barely cook for two in,
and your crazy landlord who swears Elvis once stayed
in the very apartment you are renting.

The best part about it, what truly won me over
was it overlooked the north end of Central Park.

But then the lights flicker at the impending storm,
the radiator is on strike again;
I curse at it, my head under the blanket,
and I suddenly feel like I am caught in a Bette Midler song,
toasting wine and thinking of the summer I did not sleep alone

 

BIO: Tanya Olson has been involved in the creative writing program at LBCC for over 15 years under the guidance of Frank X. Gaspar, Anthony Starros, and Kathyrn McMurray. She is currently working on her first novel and completed her first chapbook in the Spring of 2010. In 1995 she moved to New York City to study acting. She has also lived and studied in such places as Yellowstone National Park, Portland, Oregon, and once again New York City in 2008. After completing the needed transfer units at LBCC she is in her junior year at California State Dominguez Hills working toward a Bachelor of Art in English Literature and a minor in Theater Performance.