Sunlight On Ice: A Sonnet For Everyone by John Sweet

all ghosts in febru
                          ary
with their quieter songs sung
against fields of snow

all days without color

ask this minor god in his
house of brittle bone
what it means to be alive and
                      he has no answer

in his dreams he is always
clawing upwards
through frozen soil

in my arrogance i am the
king of desperate beauty

dawnmarie understands these
                                      failures,
                                tells me she
                      loves me anyway,
      and this is the new religion

this is the darkest season,
the season of bitter laughter,
of fists wrapped in barbed wire

the age of suicidal poets and of
assassinated presidents and
which would you rather be?

how long will it take before
all your clever words are
forgotten?

we’ll start at your death and
count backwards from there

john sweet, b 1968, still numbered among the living. A believer in writing as catharsis. an optimistic pessimist. Opposed to all organized religion and political parties. Avoids zealots and social media whenever possible. His latest collections include A NATION OF ASSHOLES W/ GUNS (2015 Scars Publications) and APPROXIMATE WILDERNESS (2016 Flutter Press). All pertinent facts about his life are buried somewhere in his writing.