By Daniel Thomas
He dreamed a melancholy song
called “When Will I Be Happy?”
The melody descended on a minor scale
and the lines rhymed like doors
in a corridor shutting one by one.
Thunder and wonder, listen and glisten,
tears and mirrors, falling and stalling.
In the soft soprano voice, he found
one kind of happiness.
Jacaranda petals on the car’s hood.
Summer sweat and melting ice cream.
First flakes of snow blowing
through the cobblestone street.
Refusing the if only. Rejecting
that’s when. Finding it now,
in the listen, in the glisten,
in the wonder and thunder.
Daniel Thomas’s collection of poetry, Deep Pockets, won a 2018 Catholic Press Award. He has published poems in many journals, including Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Poetry Ireland Review, Atlanta Review, and others. He has an MFA in poetry from Seattle Pacific University, as well as an MA in film and a BA in literature. Also by this poet: "Driving Meditation" and "Without Rain"