[Poem-a-Week] Something Beautiful by David E. Poston

Last month,

Last month, 
as the Fourth of July barrage 
dissolved into the night
and people around me 
gathered camp chairs and blankets 
for the slog through everyone’s trash 
back to their cars, 
I stood there in the dark 
waiting for one more 
bright flowering 
I knew would never come. 

Now, lying alone 
just before dawn 
waiting for the Perseids 
to flare across 
the edge of sight 
as the sky begins to pale 
behind a rumple of mist 
where the dark lake waits, 
I shouldn’t worry about 
which faint streaking 
will be the last. 

I’m remembering 
my ninety-year-old father
bursting into laughter
at the Dairy Queen
as he ate a banana split,
and what was so funny to him
was the sudden thought—
he said this—
that it might be 
the last one he ever ate, 
and what could I do 
but laugh with him 
and remember later 
that he was right?

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Previously appeared in Griffin Poetry 30 September 2022. https://griffinpoetry.com/2022/09/30/ncps-90-years/

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David E. Poston is the author of two poetry chapbooks and the full-length collection Slow of Study. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Atlanta Review, Cider Press Review, Ginosko, The MacGuffin, and Typehouse, among others. He is a frequent book reviewer for Pedestal and a co-editor of Kakalak

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