George Yatchisin
Autumnal
Several yards over someone
sneezes as if unzipping
a larynx, while here black
flies alight on blue chairs
in unsettling number.
There shouldn't be enough
rot in the world to tongue.
Sunset won't hide anything
despite our feeble hopes.
Night is sure to last
a long time soon.
Bio
George Yatchisin is Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, 2025-2027, and the author of Feast Days (Flutter Press 2016) and The First Night We Thought the World Would End (Brandenburg Press 2019). His poems have been published in journals including Antioch Review, Askew, and Zocalo Public Square. He is co-editor of the anthology Rare Feathers: Poems on Birds & Art (Gunpowder Press 2015), and his poetry appears in anthologies including Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies (Everyman's Library 2019).