August 2020
Robert K. Johnson
choirofday@cs.com
Bio Note: A now-retired Professor of English, I taught mostly at Suffolk University in Boston. I continue to write poems that center on everyday life (or as they say at Harvard, "quotidian reality"). This gives me plenty of subject matter.

Shadows Over Sunlight

In all your earliest years
the sadness that comes to you
fades in the next week's shine.
Until,

some unsuspecting day,
prompted by a friend's betrayal
or the sudden death of a parent,

a rush of sadness will
not only hit and hush you,
but settle deep in your bones
like a mist in thick grass, and never

again let you awake
to a morning unblemished
by the linger of sadness.

The Next Stage

Late at night I'm driving us home
from a movie.  My wife,
still awake in the back seat,
must be looking at the books
next to her—because she says,

"I know these books are Bob's."
Puzzled I say, "That's right...."
"And I know the Red Sox cap
on top of the books is Bob's."
I say, "Yes...yes."

Then she leans
close to my ear and whispers,
"But what I want to know is
where is Bob?"

"Honey, I'm Bob."
©2020 Robert K. Johnson
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