the same situation

by Tohm Bakelas

you thought summer might not end this
year, that autumn had no chance, but
then without warning the temperature
dropped, and it seemed as if overnight
leaves changed from green to yellow,
from yellow to red, from red to
purple, from purple to black.

all those faded lemonade sunsets
you chased no longer arrived. all
those flowers you watered at
midnight wilted and died.

you considered fleeing town,
driving to some place with
a name you couldn’t
pronounce.

but you knew anywhere you went,
no matter the name or the place,
you’d be faced with the same
situation, the same death
of everything, the same
dying autumn.

and so you prepared for winter
by burning blue memories
just to stay warm.

and when the fire died,
there was nothing to
do but embrace
the cold.

Morning Near Meadow Lane

by Beverly Rose Joyce

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Tohm Bakelas is a social worker in a psychiatric hospital. He was born in New Jersey, resides there, and will die there. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, zines, and online publications. He has published 22 chapbooks and 2 full length collections. He runs Between Shadows Press.

Beverly Rose Joyce is a poet, photographer, and plein air painter who lives in Brecksville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, with her husband, Carl, and their two daughters, Mallory and Samantha, along with their two dogs, Shadow and Reggie. She holds a BA in English from Baldwin-Wallace University and a MA in English from Cleveland State University, and she was a public high school English teacher for sixteen years. Her visual and literary art has been published in numerous art and literary journals and magazines, as well as in various anthologies.