Great Men

Maia Siegel

I am the greatest man on the Q train. I get off
and go to the opera in velvet and an old woman winks at me
and a giant egg descends from the ceiling. I go to work
and everyone is very unserious and I consider myself
the greatest man in the office. I am the fact checker.
I check the fact A great computer programmer once said
coding mistakes create consciousness and it is not a fact.
It is made up, actually. I am the greatest computer programmer
to create consciousness. I mean to make a mistake. My boss
has a tall glass of beer at lunch. When I find a fact that is wrong
he thanks me and keeps it exactly the way it was. I tell him
I would like to be useful, like a purse. Holding importance.
On the Q, he shows me his book on “poetic terrorism.” He says
This holds importance. No, I say. Unless
there’s space in poetic terrorism to put my keys.

Maia Siegel is a student at Yale University. She has been published in Poetry London, The Bennington Review, Rattle, and elsewhere.

ABOUT THE ART | New York Echo by Bella Taylor, 2022. Bella Taylor is a student at Yale University.