Five Poems

Poetry ~ Jim Brosnan

The Last Diner in Missouri
 
Wind driven rain sweeps
across the diner parking lot
 
where she parks her Audi,
a bright red sports coupe
 
its color indistinguishable
in the torrents of precipitation
 
now flooding the walkway
near the restaurant's entrance.
 
A crack of thunder, announced
by brilliant flashes in quick
 
succession, reverberates
across open wheat fields,
 
reinforces nature's fury,
alters her evening plans
 
to caravan with eighteen
wheelers across the interstate.
~

Across Vast Prairies
 
Elongated
shadows gather
along the shoulders
of this asphalt
ribbon as I cross
the state line,
blinded by
oncoming
headlights,
hours after
the sun set
low in the west,
a time of night
when I reach
for past memories--
afternoons when
faded rainbow
mist evaporated
in a July sky
over an Iowa
highway. 
~

Snatched Before Daylight
 
In dreams
we touch
the Colorado
evening sky,
our footsteps echo
in the shallows
of half-sleep
where I wonder
about the fate
of phrases--
secrets found
in the lyrics
of a song
heard under
gray skies
before the crescent
moon gets tangled
in tall spruce
as these moments
disappear at daybreak.
~

Colorless Dreams
 
On a June morning
with a crisp Sunday
breeze, I followed
the paved state route
curving miles
through small towns
and past covered
bridges in Madison
County, Iowa where
eastern cottonwoods
and shagbark hickory
leaned against
the eastern sky
as I listened to oldies
by Presley and Orbison
on Sirius radio,
and for a moment
recalled those nights
decades ago. 
~

Halfway to Rawlins
 
Under broken
cumulus clouds
the solid yellow
line hypnotizes me
just before midnight
as I navigate
this expanse
of mountainous terrain
high above valleys
marked by treetops
of spruce and aspen
in this dark photo
while I can’t bear
to listen again
to our song,
lyrics that invade
my daydreams.
~
​

​Jim Brosnan’s publishing credits include Nameless Roads (Moon Pie Press, 2019), four chapbooks of poetry and over 500 poems most recently appearing in the Aurorean, The Avocet, The Bridge, Eunoia Review (Singapore), Nine Muses Poetry (Wales), Strands (India), Scarlet Leaf Review (Canada), and Voices of the Poppies Anthology (UK). Jim has won numerous awards in the annual National Federation of Poetry Societies competition. He is a full professor of English at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI

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