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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