Edited by Doug Holder

Our featured poet this month is Robert K. Johnson. Johnson taught courses in literature and creative writing at Suffolk University for many years. He has had several poetry collections published, the most recent: “The Latest News” ( Ibbetson 2002).

Johnson will be the recipient of the “Ibbetson Street Press Life Time Achievement Award” at The Somerville News Writers Festival in November. On Sept. 24 Johnson will be the featured reader at the Toast Lounge, along with Elizabeth Lund, as part of “The Somerville News @ Toast” series.

To have your poetry considered for the Lyrical send a brief bio, and two to three poems to: Doug Holder 25 School St. Somerville, Ma. 02143 dougholder@post.harvard.edu

A Matter of Time

I am punched breathless by the fear
a moment from now some country’s first strike
will blow up the street where I live, cracking
the ceiling into flames, crumbling
the walls into heaps of plywood and plaster
my bleeding fingers will fling aside
as I try to reach the twisted leg
of what was once my wife.

Out There

Standing across from the State House
every day, you flick

a small American flag
as if it were a whip

and shout venom about homosexuals,
millionaire athletes, meter maids,

dog owners, foreign cars;
cancer-causing Asian food.

Lean and hot as hate,
you need no hat or coat

while the words from your blue-veined lips
harangue the air

or the startled drivers paused
at the light or walkers who quickly

veer away from you. I, too,
always hurry by—

but silently offer you my thanks
for reminding me

even our daily world’s sunniest noon
includes not only

cars who engines won’t start
and computers down for a day

but madness.

Doug Holder http://www.authorsden.com/douglasholder