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Tuesday, May 05, 2026

THE ART OF THE DEAL

by Steve Deutsch

 

 

Cartoon by José Alberto Rodríguez Avila


My cousin Bobby

tells me

the ultra rich

 

are negotiating

for more sunshine

on their compounds.

 

He reasons

that will mean

less sunshine

 

for the rest of us.

“They also want

a full moon

 

every night of the year.”

Bobby’s the nicest guy,

but thinks 2+2 is advanced math.

 

He read about the sunlight

in several feeds

on the internet

 

and now he owns it.

I ask him

who they are negotiating with

 

and he gives me

his poor dumb cousin look.

I drive home past

 

what we know as “the castle on the hill,”

and it seems to me

the hill has gotten higher.

 

The sun sets at my house

at 7:41 tonight—

it’s supposed to set at eight.

 

And I have to wonder

what else they might

be bargaining for.



Steve Deutsch is poetry editor of Centered Magazine and was the first poet in residence at the Bellefonte Art Museum. He has been nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net Prizes multiple times. He has six volumes of Poetry. One, Brooklyn won the Sinclair Poetry Prize.