Three by Paul Lojeski

Aftermath

by PAUL LOJESKI

 

The day after the storm

was beautiful: everything

flushed clean by that wild

rain blown horizontal

in a stomping mad wind—

serene in pale sunlight

glinting off thousands

of scattered leaves, washing

over toppled trees and dead,

black lines snaked across

broken pavement.  In houses

quit of machines for hundreds

of miles frightened survivors

stared warily at a different

reality, cut off from the grid,

cut off from the screens that’d

created living in that wired age.

Disassembled, then, by nature

shrugging its shoulders, serious

men, men in charge, once again

rendered mute by disbelief,

some lessons never learned.

 

 

Looking Ahead

by PAUL LOJESKI

 

Nothing will be

remembered,

 

not even

the great warmth

 

of that little girl’s

hand in mine.

 

 

Magic Devoid of Voice

by PAUL LOJESKI

 

Breath rasping

in the middle-

of-the-night,

in that

mysterious

darkness when

humans leave

the earth alone

for a moment

and magic devoid

of voice floods

the mind.

Perfectly still,

I listened, waiting

for a clue,

a sign of hope

as the wind

rushed over

an empty world.

Paul Lojeski’s poetry has appeared in journals and online, including at Counterpunch.  He lives with his wife and daughter in Port Jefferson, NY.

 

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