a poem by rodrigo toscano
Flash Encounters
Is it really, a portal to something more real
This phone, with all its gleaming options, tracking us?
It’s like a spell! But here’s how the enchantment ends:
We want this to be a spell, this here new poem.
So it’s spell against spell, which one’s gonna win out?
As it is, even this poem, battling it out
Is tethered to screen logic, to a fractalled world.
So, what makes this poem different than that portal?
It’s becoming clear (to the chagrin of book sales)
—Not much, both barely interrupt the scrolling mind.
It’s the mind, by now, that’s been totally transformed.
What poetry can even speak to this “tracking” mind
Still hungry to “cast” and absorb all kinds of spells
Still starving for connection, these flash encounters.
Rodrigo Toscano is a poet based in New Orleans. He is the author of thirteen books of poetry. His latest books are Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, 2026) WHITMAN. CANNONBALL. PUEBLA (Omnidawn, 2025, National Poetry Series finalist, NYPL best books of 2025). The Cut Point (Counterpath, 2023), The Charm & The Dread (Fence, 2022). His Collapsible Poetics Theater, a 2008 National Poetry Series selection. His poetry has appeared in over 25 anthologies, including, Best American Poetry and Best American Experimental Poetry. Toscano received a New York State Fellowship in Poetry. He won the Edwin Markham 2019 prize for poetry. He works for the Labor Institute in conjunction with the United Steelworkers. He has been on the board of the New Orleans Poetry Festival since 2015. rodrigotoscano.com