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Thomas DeFreitas was born in Boston, and was baptized at St. Anthony’s Church in Somerville at the age of eighteen days. He grew up in East Boston and attended the Boston Latin School, where, under the tutelage of exceptional teachers, he encountered poetry in a big way. He spent three semesters at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). His poems have been published in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Plainsongs, Ibbetson Street, Pensive, Ovunque Siamo, and elsewhere. Thomas’s fourth collection of poems, Walking Between the Raindrops, will be published in 2025 by Kelsay Books.

Impulsive

Thomas DeFreitas

The most impulsive thing I’ve ever done

Was not to spread some butter on a bun

Or steal a pencil from the Bradley School

Or break a strict pedantic grammar-rule

Or give a beggar a five-dollar bill

Or walk au naturel up Beacon Hill

Or swim in the Atlantic with the sharks

Or chase big dogs while mimicking their barks

Or scamper in the grass with antic squirrels

Or dress in Vera Wang with a string of purrels

Or send fan letters to Drew Barrymore

Or drink beer till it seeps from every pore

Or run the Boston Marathon (it’s doable)

Or swing at curveballs with a bat from Louisville

Or join in circles with my favorite Wiccan

Or flap my arms while clucking like a chicken.

My most impulsive deed, if truth be told?

Hell, I forgot. I must be getting old.

— Thomas DeFreitas

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