Easy to envy
their erratic
exuberance
ascending with
scythe-like wings
in fevered flight,
rounding rooftops
and the crowns
of trees before
returning like
blind oracles
with a divine
purpose and
grim prophecies
to share. Their
delirious arrivals
and farewells
blend then blur
into fleur-de-lis
pivots and pirouettes,
chevron tails split
apart like lengthy
shears slicing through
charmed circles of
air moments before
their tiny throats
of glossy indigo
morph into embers
as daylight falls
upon the tongues
of tides just catching
the last wink of sun.
A resident of Connecticut, John is a graduate of Trinity College, Wesleyan University and the University of Connecticut. In the Lilac Hour, his first volume of poems, was published in 2020 by Antrim House, and it is available on Amazon. His poems have been published, or are forthcoming, in journals including Euphony, Moria, Penumbra, River Heron, Sheepshead, Third Wednesday, Amethyst Review, High Window, Poetica Review and the French Literary Review. John is also a two-time 2021 Pushcart Prize nominee.
Caitlin Johnson holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Her work has appeared in Carcinogenic Poetry, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Narrative Northeast, Pembroke Magazine, Vagina: The Zine, and Wild Quarterly, among other outlets. A chapbook, Boomerang Girl, was published in 2015 by Tiger’s Eye Press, and a full-length collection, Gods in the Wilderness, was published in 2016 by Pink.Girl.Ink. Press.
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