There Is Nicholas Cage

By Sam Veres

   If you squint
everything looks like 
                             Nicholas Cage.
Clinking corks into 
                   bottles
and they play Lobster Claw Judy
in the fluorescent 
  bubbles
                   popping up through their lips.
He thinks he is becoming 
     a mountain chicken;
                    he is not what he is, 
                    no matter the name.
He is  
             a lizard, 
                    a shark, 
                             a heat-seeking panther.
     Googly eyes on everything
but paper.
  He lost his hand, his bride
                  to a wide-haired petty thief.
   Of course, there is Nick’s 
acting
but that is only a secondary 
             thing.
When he squints
             he sees bees in his eyes
that look like 
                  Nicholas Cage.
    He doesn’t know anymore
where his character ends.
                        His mirror is a television screen
            advertising National Treasure 3.
At night, Nick cradles his head to 
     sleep
                      without taking off his socks
            and wonders if he’ll dream.