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James B. Nicola’s poems have appeared in the Antioch, Southwest and Atlanta Reviews; Rattle; Tar River; and Poetry East. His full-length collections are Manhattan Plaza (2014), Stage to Page (2016), Wind in the Cave (2017), Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists (2018), and Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond (2019). His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice award. His poetry has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, and six Pushcart Prize nominations – from Shot Glass Journal, Parody, Ovunque Siamo, Lowestoft Chronicle, and twice from Trinacria – for which he feels both stunned and grateful.

James B. Nicola

Fernando

The frog escaped,

my brother reported to me.

Why did he use that word, escaped,

and why did he smile? (The snake.)

He wanted to find a mate, a home.

This was his home, I bleated, all the food

and rocks and water he’d ever need or want!

How do you know? I told him how.

Oh, you speak Frog? Of course.

Fernando taught me. Fernando is my friend!

Why keep him in jail then? Jail? Ha! To him this is heaven!

The truth was clear and simple when I was seven.

Today, that brother admitted

over pumpkin pie, shielded by a stomach,

that he was the one who’d set Fernando free.

He smirked behind a serpent-shaped tattoo.

From what, I inquired, aghast. He burped, From you.

— James B. Nicola

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