Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. Today we feature Scott E. Piner.
Piner is the author of Great Scott: And Other Poems (2021) andI Am Me: And Other Poems on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit (2021). In October 2020, Piner’s Memoir/Essay Magical Memories was published by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Piner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. In addition to his creative writing, Scott is a marketing professional by day and a professional magician by night. Above all, Scott is a husband and a father.
Sweet Darkness
I feel the full moon against
the cold, dark melancholy scowl
Rats race and coyotes sing
with laughter
A doctor hangs up his suit, cape, and
mask for the night, and sits down at the
kitchen table to balance his check book
Puppets rage on the tube while
robots block and delete dangerous rhetoric,
and some people, but not all,
shiver in fear of the mutating menace
And somewhere, a pastor dials
a private number to counsel his
mistress who has just sent her
husband into battle
At home, another man longs
to be caressed and whispered to;
he doesn’t weep, too much,
prays too little, and
worries about tomorrow too often
The stench of a neighbor’s dog
rots in his yard as the coyotes
rest their heads,
while the jester screams,
and the lady vanishes
I hear the sun rising.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
