by Paul Ilechko
This is what will happen
in the morning in that brief
interval when the ghosts are still
visible as they scurry towards
their hiding place in the darkest
corners of the daytime house
before the buckets of almost
boiling water are spiked with
bleach and soap before the hay
is baled and the bales are stacked
before there are children seated
in the shady schoolroom taught
to babble in words and numbers
to paint in color and fantasy
this is just another morning
when someone is playing music
is singing a song that changes key
and repeats its chorus and outside
beneath the wavering spread of
the copper beech hearts are being
wrapped in metallic paper
and exchanged as if they were
the contents of a pink and silver
lunchbox that someone left on
the patch of flattened grass
down by the river.
Paul Ilechko is a British American poet and occasional songwriter who lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. His work has appeared in many journals, including The Bennington Review, Bear Review, Atlanta Review, Permafrost, and Laurel Review. His book “Fragmentation and Volta” was published in 2025 by Gnashing Teeth Publishing. He reads for Marrow Magazine.
January House Literary Journal 
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