Paul Ilechko

s.

Changes Two


Change might just be a terrible thing
he said  as the water levels rose

covering the mossy trunks well past
the first or second branching

the mottled bark now deliquescing
handfuls giving up the ghost  breaking

off into this liquid landscape of salt
and mud  where animals once gamboled

and lovers hid beneath a stippled
canopy  wrapped inside their lust


it surely can  she said in forthright
confirmation  watching as the fires burn

atop surrounding hills  watching
the thickness of the blackly cumulous

plumes that shimmer in the hot
extremity  as lakes and streams

evaporate  adding their moisture to
the menacing violence of the troposphere

parching the earth and all its vegetation
in preparation for a following cycle.



Paul Ilechko is the author of three chapbooks, most recently Pain Sections (Alien Buddha Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Rogue Agent, January Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Book of Matches, and Pithead Chapel. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, New Jersey.

Next page

Previous page

Spring 2021