National Poetry Month : Gillian Parrish,

nothing but late sun falling through the trees

red on rain-wet branches: a cardinal's spring drill

radio plays the past World Series win

a strike away from dead no games this year

still the city holds our breath together

empty stadiums set with tomorrow's beds

as April overtakes us

now the sound of so many cars out on the roads

some of us riding the buses to make rent

some of us on our porches watching sundown

some of us junkies cutting thru backyards on our runs

last of the day turning blue

as our governor turns away

old fool will make no rule to save us

Gillian Parrish offers the second poem of a sonnet corona written during the covid-19 pandemic. She is the author of two books: of rain and nettles wove (Singing Horse Press, 2018) and supermoon (Singing Horse Press, 2020) as well as a chapbook (full text here), cold spell out from DUSIE in 2019. She lives in University City, St. Louis (US) on the traditional land of the Osage people, where she serves as an assistant professor in the MFA in Writing program at Lindenwood University. When time allows, she serves as the mothership of spacecraftprojects.com, which features interviews w/ artists and new work by writers.