Richard St. John is the author of The Pure Inconstancy of Grace (published by Truman State University Press, in 2005, as first runner-up for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry), Each Perfected Name (TSUP, 2015), and Shrine (a long poem released as a chapbook, 2011). His newest collection, Book of Entangled Souls is forthcoming from Broadstone Books (summer 2022). For information, please visit: http://richardstjohnpoet.com
Even So
Even So My friend wants to be a tree that’s blazing out its autumn so when it’s done, its reds and golds, oranges and browns –lie sudden all around. Outside, chill wind. Trees beyond the strip-mall – bare and thin. I pass a huge, unbalanced ginkgo,leftward branches absent from a winter storm, then grasp the frost-tinged handrailof my front …