Two poems

Sonoma

light rotates

morning to noon

olive branches sway

meatheads in the pool

drink vodka lemonade

bees work the lavender

the wind drops

American flags

shrug and go limp

children wrinkle

in chlorine

summer moves on

super-moon rises

over rows of grape vines

sign of a good year

Milos

I put my wife and boys

on a boat off a southern beach

my stomach is no good on boats

the wind was down

the sea flat and green

Later, the wind rose

a single bell tolled

from the Byzantine tower

cicadas sawed from a

bent eucalyptus

in the church square

but I don’t believe in omens

Tonight, after my family

have rinsed the salt and

suncream from their skin

we will eat our last dinner

on Milos

wine, olives

scorpion fish

Who knows

what change

will have come?

An executive coach and professional songwriter, David Rosenheim lives in a solar-powered house by the sea with his wife and two boys. The Weather Band, Hugh, and Winchester Revival have released his songs on seven critically lauded records, and his poetry has been published or is pending publication in journals including California Quarterly, The San Antonio Review, The Adirondack Review, Frigg, Common Ground, and the forthcoming anthology, Grief Becomes You. He is a graduate of Oxford University.

be a willing promoter of any of his published poems.