Author: Alexander B. Joy

my first kiss
 around here somewhere
  ghost pipes

dating profile
 she searches for
  her good side

Gettysburg
 catbirds at a distance
  from the cannon line

expatriate
her adopted tongue’s
word for home

graffiti wall
 a passing dog
  leaves his mark

the ones saved
 for the confessional
  war stories

art class notes
 the margin doodles
  improve by the week

cooling tea
 all I believed
  I'd do today

editing a line
 the cigarette coal's
  precarious length

paperback romance
 a bend in the spine
  at the sultry part

sushi bar
 making eye contact
  with the koi

remembrance day
 the gate clangs
  against its lock

old journal
 a stranger
  to myself

ruined mansion
 the gate still stands
  but not the fence

vet visit
 a couple leaves
  with a collar

mistletoe
 our kiss lasts
  past the doorway

autumn chill
 harbor seals
  crowd a buoy

damselfly wings
the slant of the sunlight
between leaves