June 2024
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.

Youth

I part my bedroom curtains
     to an early summer morning—
tall grass and plump green shrubs,
     birds gabbing nest to nest,
breeze-rippled maple leaves  

and, standing in sun-lit brightness,
     a girl dressed in shimmering white,
her long blonde hair drifting down
     over the curve of her shoulders,

her face soft as a dream. 
     And though I've never seen her
before, I know who she is—
     she is how I feel right now.
Originally published in Sarasvati


A Hospital Voyage

Every midnight
a floating island,
quiet as flowers,
slows near my bed

and the island's queen,
name-tagged Emma
and wearing white,

steps ashore
to take my sleepy 
temperature,
check my pulse

and, kindest of all,
give me a pill
that will help me heal.

The Gift Of Early Evening

While the glowing sun sinks lower
behind the trees, see the shadows
draped over the patio chairs, 

see the beads of silver balanced
on the bushes' topmost leaves,

see the long streak of gold
lengthen its hushed gleam
across the rows of red bricks
                            
			and learn
if you're smart enough to stay

exactly where you are,
stay relaxed as a feather
in the quiet of this island.
Originally published in Ibbetson Street

©2024 Robert K. Johnson
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