Dawn Again

“Red sky in the morning”
but I’m not a sailor.

Nature has a way of catching seagulls
so I don’t have to

see endless streams of them
on the beach at low tide.

Earth sheds its treasures
littered on a few miles of sand.

The August haze floats over the horizon.
And spray flings out to catch my feet

when I lay a towel down. And soon the sun
will dry everything up, every single thing.

A cycle. And every artist is unsure how
to continue. It takes an ocean not to break*.

Every year, my wife and I stare at each other,
say it’s about time we make it back

and reach our hands out
toward the endlessness of the ocean.

We’re moths. Our footsteps sink
into the dry, glowing packets that become

a more hardened surface. But that’s where
the waves crash ashore. Cassandra said something,

“take warning” maybe? But no one listens.
You’ll see us all strewn about,

stuck and surrounded by planks of houses,
wayward limbs, and the oil.

A lot of oil.
No one ever fucking listens.

*From the song “Terrible Love” by The National

Photo by dominik hofbauer on Unsplash.

Kevin A. Risner

Kevin A. Risner (he/him) is a product of Ohio. He is the author of Do Us a Favor (Variant Literature, 2021) and You Thought This Was Just Gonna Be About Cleveland, Didn't You (Ghost City Press, 2022). His work has recently been published or is forthcoming from 50-Word Stories, Pinhole Poetry, The Daily Drunk Mag, Midway Journal, antonym, Pilgrimage Magazine, and more. Find him on X, Instagram, and his website.