"Nights Larkinesque" by Paul Jones

What are nights for?

Nights are where dreams begin.

We sleep, we relive

Times found and times lost

Where we may be happy again.

Where can we dream but nights?

Oh, so many offer answers:

The seer, the shrink, and the fakir,

Each wearing their hollow hats,

As they toss their bones and dice.

Paul Jones is a person of minor interest. A manuscript of his poems crashed into the moon’s surface in 2019. Another moon shot began its voyage in February 2024. In 2021, Jones was inducted into the NC State Computer Science Hall of Fame. His book, Something Wonderful, was published by Redhawk Press in 2021. In 2024, Jones’ poem “Geode” was plagiarized multiple times by the notorious serial offender, John Kucera. Recently, Jones has published poems in Hudson Review, Salvation South, Tar River Poetry, NC Literary Review, as well as in anthologies including Best American Erotic Poems (1800-Present). http://smalljones.com