Poetry: Selections from John Yamrus

it snowed like hell that night,

 

and

only two people 

showed up for the reading, 

 

leaving 

me and them 

and a pile of empty 

seats and a table covered 

with stacks of books that would never get sold, 

 

and a 

contempt for it all 

can never be put into words.  

 

when 

you’re not 

used to Happy, 

 

you 

grab it, 

squeeze it, 

take it home 

and hope that it 

 

never goes away.

she remembered, and

 

she 

was afraid.

 

she 

had always said 

(to herself and to others) 

 

that it’s 

a beautiful world,

 

but 

things have 

a way of changing.

 

and she 

remembered 

and she was afraid.

John Yamrus has been a working writer for over 50 years, publishing 35 books, including 29 poetry collections, 2 novels, and 3 volumes of non-fiction. His work has appeared in nearly 3,000 magazines and anthologies worldwide. Recently, The Street and Present Tense were released by Anxiety Press.