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Project Apollo
I was the poolboy but it was billiards
I got up on the table with a feather duster
and did a little dance like the honeybee
to get the green felt felt green again
I felt it in my stinger. I felt it in my pockets
the god of light shined his light on me
and all around. and later it was his scope
because also the god of medicine also
the god who killed every boy he loved
which may have only been one. one good one.
then I appeared in ads for pools or ads
for poolboys. I appeared in a theater
near you like The Hustler, a movie about
a fast boy who plays pool. Paul Newman
played Fast Eddie Felson and appeared
in a theater near me and also wet
daydreams. I used to splash myself
with his dressing. undressing on the billiard
table and later by the pool of a poodle
groomer who tried to coif me he
never came up for air, he also scratched
also the god of archery of games of hawks
of the discus and of the stray. the ricochet
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D. A. Powell's most recent collections are Atlas T (Rescue Press, 2020) and Low Hanging Fruit (Foundlings Press, 2022). He teaches at the University of San Francisco.
[Photo of D.A. Powell by Ben Decastro. “Project Apollo” appears in The Paris Review #251. See https://www.theparisreview.org/poetry/8379/project-apollo-d-a-powell]
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Apollo Dancing with the Nine Muses. After Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536), gilt and tempera on board. Italian, second half of 19th century.