Sara Germano is a 2006 graduate of Albany High School and winner of the Tom Natell Peace Poetry Prize. She is now a freshman English major at Fordham University in The Bronx, where she is a member of The Ampersand literary forum. She is quite enamoured of East Fordham Road and Arthur Avenue, but they're no Lark Street.

POEMS

• Americana
• What's Your Cup Size, Rozanne?

AMERICANA

my friend confronted me with
quite a dillema
the other day:
“i cant decide which
reality show
to watch tonight”
i looked at her
and said
don’t you ever stop
for a minute
and think
about what a weird society
we live in?
she said
“yeah
but then i realize that
thinking
is
stupid
and i go buy something”

WHAT’S YOUR CUP SIZE, ROZANNE?

My mother gave me her gift
certificate and I drove myself ten minutes to the mall-
I can’t get ahold of this driving thing yet, I mean
I’m always forgetting something, like okay
maybe I should have signaled that
lane change on Central and it probably wasn’t
a good idea to have turned right on that one-way
(the guy in that Civic was kinda mad about that one
but I’m a good person, I promise! I volunteered
at Equinox!)
So, I check to make sure the car is
locked after I park, and there’s that
small moment of triumph when I pull open
the fingerprint-stained glass doors to the
shopping center.

Independence, finally.

And here I am, in Victoria’s
Secret. Surrounded by lace and strings and things
with precariously delicate names.
All I really need is a good bra or two, a few
pairs of underwear. The sales associate
asks for my cup size
and it all comes rushing back:
that horrible fight, the boxes full of
his belongings. He ran off with all my nice bras.
And to tell you the truth
I can’t remember my cup size, either.
I fidget and check her name tag and
address her directly. I say,
“Kayla, I’m going to need your help.”