Darrell Petska

---

 

Stopping at Mt. Hope Cemetery

If it isn't death again, that
one-trick pony selling despair,
wrack and ruin—

Another soul has departed:
the final incense burned,
the doves of mourning
hovering at the grave.

Atop Mt. Hope, where the snake
dangles devastations of sorrow,
the dearly beloved extend arms
and hug, urgently hug—

Skies brighten. Raucous crows
shut up while, overhead,
the lark.

Darrell Petska's writing has appeared in Blast Furnace, The Tule Review, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Red Paint Hill, Shot Glass Journal, and other publications. Darrell cut short his career as a university editor to be the arbiter of his own words. He now is, in Madison, Wisconsin.