Editor’s Note: Ahhh, the languid days of summer with its cookouts, coolers, colorful effusion of flowers, and the possibility of happiness despite our failings.
Advance Praise for the Coming Season
Clouds turn opalescent. A gate
gleams in the mist, its chipped
posts and rail ends shining.
The sky opens to sunlight,
and fathers carry laughing children
into pavilions. Coolers glow
blue and red on wooden tables.
Pork and beans wait in transparent
bowls. Margarine shines
on hot dog buns. Trees go crazy
with flowering, their loosed petals
bouncing down pathways. A boy sees
a branch like a dragon bone,
swaying, lifting. Tulips open
their soft mouths. A girl sings
to her hamster in its blue plastic cage.
It sleeps in its torn paper nest. A father
imagines voices, his parents speaking
his name. Forgiven, he thinks. His clumsy
heart, his dirty hands. A potato chip bag
lies open before him. His baby cries.
Barbara Daniels’ most recent book, Talk to the Lioness, was published by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press. Her poetry has appeared in Main Street Rag, Free State Review, Philadelphia Stories, and many other journals. She received four fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her poem, “Advance Praise for the Coming Season,” appeared in the Remington Review (internet), Spring 2022. Posted here with permission of the author.
