June 2021
Bio Note: In 1976, I moved with my family to Fairbanks, Alaska to teach for a year in the creative writing program at the University of Alaska. I’m still there. I’ve published seven books of poetry, as well as a collection of essays.
Time Off From Bad Behavior
An outlaw can’t be outdoors
all winter long. He needs to
go home to his wife,
sit around, drink cocoa
on the couch. It is night
somewhere deep in the last
century. There are more
stars over Kansas than marshals
at Fort Knox. Time
to plot the next
great raid. Time to relax
in the pure pleasures
of the criminal mind.
Those shadows slinking down by
the edge of the field: cows
from the Capital of Missteps,
or some would-be brave neighbors
scouting a reward. No one
comes within range. Who
has the gumption to face
a man with a smile so quick
all you’ll see is the bottom
of the sky falling into your lap
as his jaunty dog lopes by.
©2021 John Morgan
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