---

Matthew Caretti

Noblesse Oblige

Every five years a new king here. A long-standing pact among the royal clans. But this last sovereign abdicated after just two years. Ran off instead to marry Miss Moscow.

coronation
peeling rambutan
at the corner shop

I deposit the bristled peels and dark seeds in the rubbish bin. Move on. Toward the posh, new gated community. Reflect along the way. I have traded orphans for children of the elite at the school here. Yet there is still perhaps something to offer beyond language and literature. A humble American. Or at least the hope that humility and America are not yet incompatible in their minds.

in the shadow
of the highrise
bamboo shoots

---

About the Author

Matthew Caretti began publishing his poems in 2009, though his fascination with Eastern short-form genres began much earlier. In 2017, he won the Snapshot Press eChapbook Award for Harvesting Stones.