Slow Burn

One of my poems from the series "Madison Street" -- Slow Burn -- has been published in the latest issue of The Lyric.

Thank you, Jean!

Slow Burn

The children miss their favorite swimming hole

up at the creek, now autumn’s settled in.

This afternoon, one of Glen Alden’s trucks

has brought a mix of pea and chestnut coal.

They’ll chute it down into our cellar bin—

four tons, just over eighty-seven bucks.

We all watch as the monster dump-box lifts

and tilts. The blue-black slow-burn payload shifts

then rumbles to the dank, dark space below.

Our radiators, working full-time till

next March, will clank and gurgle, dry the snow

from woolen mittens, intercept the chill

creeping into the house as blizzards blow

pale spoondrift down our street from Beaumont hill.