November 2021
Robert K. Johnson
choirofday@cs.com
Bio Note: My poems are spins on our everyday world, which has always gripped me much more than science-fiction worlds. A now retired English Professor, I taught for many years at Suffolk University in Boston. I also for several years was Poetry Editor for IBBETSON STREET magazine. I have had several collections of poems published.

When You Leave

for Rachael

Looking back at me,
you say, “Goodbye,”
and shut the front door
behind you,
		and the room

I'm left in deflates
like a sad sigh.
All the furniture 
shrinks an inch.

The paper's front page 
changes to news 
of no importance.
The air is sucked
close to airless

while I try not
to be afraid
today was the last time
we will meet.

News of Your Death

for my sister

turns this morning's 
dim-lit air

into a desert glare 
that stings

my eyes wet; nor
can I bear

for a moment more
the grief I feel

hour
after hour.
©2021 Robert K. Johnson
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