"Just One," "The Wall," and "You Can't Get There from Here"
Just One
It takes only one
incidental bereavement
to overturn
the heart.
The Wall
The wall
has been
breached
but inside
the people are
watching Netflix
You Can't Get There from Here
You're in Brooklyn, a place of cruelty
in your youth, a place of probity
in your dotage. You sit on a bench
vacated by Jamaican nannies
under which portly pigeons nuzzle
discolored cheese on wheat squares.
Around you, kids, insulated from the stink
of commerce and contract by the odor
of rude commotion, are high jumping
to untenable commands, running toward
invisible rings of safety. The sound of a bus
incites the nervous squirrels. Twin bumblebees
alight on a dusty bubbler. The cohesion
of the day falls hard into vast contrivance.
Bill Yarrow, Professor of English at Joliet Junior College, is the author of eleven books of poetry including Blasphemer and The Vig of Love. His poems have been published in Poetry International, FRiGG, Gargoyle, PANK, Confrontation, Contrary, Diagram, Thrush, Chiron Review, RHINO, and many other journals. Bill recommends Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
