American Fantasy

By Steven Faviano

THE WORLD BECOMES MORE COMPLEX EVERY MINUTE.

Between political unrest, deepening inequality, and ambiguity across relationships, the future is thrown into uncertainty with no room to break free. Even the freedom to choose how to move forward is bogged down by complacent, repetitive discourse on TV. The line between right and wrong may be blurred, but one thing will always be true: the hope to build a better world is in all of us. It's inevitable that through comradery—this unity—we will raise the standard for how our lives are truly lived. This is the core of American Fantasy—where the desire to grow, create and explore is stagnated by the everyday demand to survive. You're valid to be exhausted and unmotivated—every one of us has experienced loss to some degree. This book rejects the notion that this country is beyond repair, that the problems we face are impossible to overcome. The power of the people comes from our individual strength to shed the past, heal, empathize with each other today, and fight for an inclusive tomorrow. How does your own heart touch the person beside you?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legacy Book Press
• Release date: Jul 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223290285

Book preview

American Fantasy

POEMS BY

STEVEN FAVIANO

––––––––

Legacy Book Press LLC

Camanche, Iowa

Copyright © 2023 Steven Faviano

Cover artwork and design by Kaitlea Toohey (kaitleatoohey.com)

Illustrations by Nyah Elizabeth Costa

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, re- cording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The views expressed in this book are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.

ISBN: 979-8-9867874-9-7

Library of Congress Number: 1-12113864302

Dedicated to Mom, Dani, and Dad

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACT I: The Social Order

The Candle

In The Garden

Challenger

Crucible

Marketability

Shattered

Tribunal

Polarized

Floating Home

[Unavailable]

Forward

Crisis

A Hero’s Requim

Diplomacy

Sound Bitten

Theater

Kindle

Commercial

We Bring Peace

Today

Act II: Venture

Breach

Over Heaven

Currently

Kettle

Renegade

Climbing

Look Away

Ghost Town

Coalmine Canaries

Declaration

Be Yourself

Mirror

Driven

Wayfinder

Lucky Strike

Obsession & Resistance

Conventions

Overhaul

Revisions

Solitaire

ACT III: elemenTAl

Foolish

Divination

Soothsayer

Emperor

Hierophant

Twining

Moonchild

Dandelion

The Hermit

Fortuna

Justice

Stagnation

Curse

Temperance

Fissure

This Blessed Place

Rebel to the Cause

Nightshade

Sunshine

Judgement

ACT IV: deSpondenCy

Darkest Pond

Life Raft

The Void Doesn’t Care

Escape this Place

No Thanks

Joyride

Ignition

Desolate Pioneers

Baggage

Open Door

Dueling Fate

Violence

Wildfare

Fruition

Seminar

Weight

Extinction

Grounded

Insomniac

Prolong

ACT V: BloSSom

Beats Per Minute

Another Traverser

Rosebud

Calligraphy

Torrent

No Cardigans

Tin Can Drums

Cold Scenes

Whisper

Orpheus

The Clone

Missed Connection

October

Loyalty

Cassiopeia

Aspen Heights

Fancy Motorcars

Space Race

In Reverse

Matrimony

ACT VI: The World

Ode to Nation-Building

Penance of Isaac

Invincible

What They Wove In Us

Jupiter

Immolation

Doom

The Ballad of Icarus

Prince Winter

Krásny Svét

Quantum

Weekend After

Iron Lung

Abundant War

Cambodian Ego Death

The Eiffel

Janus the Gatekeeper

Everest

Erasing the Usurper

First Bastion

References

About the Author

ACT I:

The Social Order

The Candle

Fame is a vice and a hoax.

You said to trust this Holy Ghost

beyond the bread and feasible roast –

where did you go when I needed you most?

I believe that someday, sometime,

someone’s gonna make a rhyme.

We even forget the sun can rise

when there’s a reason to be up at night.

I have to run, these hands are too idle,

to me, this is far more than survival.

Maybe someday I can feel safe,

it’s not my fault that I’m late

when Joy is just a touch away.

Why can’t I know the truth?

tell me why is the Red Sea polluted?

To play a flute for elliptical gods,

is there significance in this small frog?

I pray, I wait, I obey and rebel,

slacking at the corner at the bottom of a well.

I close my eyes to hear it crash,

I’ll never get that castle back.

I won’t stack crates more than I can endure

to feed the beast of doorstep wars.

There’s mercy at the end of the sword,

there’s power in the extension cord.

There’s music in the universe

if only I scribbled down that verse.

At this rate, it can’t get much worse,

it’s fine you missed the baby’s birth.

Each seed I grow will corrupt indefinitely,

when I blink, the days shift aimlessly.

It’s too late to forgive, too early still for apologies,

with no path we have to serpentine –

I can’t love you if I can’t love me.

I still believe there’s hope in us,

identified by what binds us to Earth:

if suspense is the second before the punch,

consider my fist unclutched.

Wield whatever is within our grasp

from finger, pen, final gasp,

the spark reclaimed by palms quick:

the candle only has one wick.

A drawing of a candle Description automatically generated

In The Garden

Have we asked the moth if it prefers to drift during day?

Butterflies we won’t offer the same, that question is to remain.

As far as I can say, moths and butterflies flutter the same;

beautiful in different ways, they light the World when one’s astray.

Around my head the dragonflies, flying faster than my pen,

soar off the page, dueling till I dot the very ends.

Off my hand the honeybees hover to a blooming leaf,

I observe as they pollinate, they