]Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

The Storm

We don’t mention his name
in front of your new
husband, while my children
play with his, the unnamed man
who used to be my friend,
my best friend even, before you
said he was yours. In dreams now
he comes back to me, a reply
to unanswered emails. I hang out
with his parents on Halloween.
You are the abandoned wife
I invite to dinner, hugging
the house while clouds close down
in thunderclaps. I hover
below the eaves. Omi in my arms,
17 months old, gigantic maple
boughs wagging prophetic fingers
of bone above. Branches crash
among power lines.
You text me, cancel dinner.
A severe storm warning in effect.

 

Cameron Morse is Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review, a poetry editor at Harbor Editions, and the author of six collections of poetry. His first, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Far Other (Woodley Press, 2020). He holds and MFA from the University of Kansas City—Missouri and lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife Lili and two children.

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine art photographer. He lives at Mosaic Commons, a co-housing community in Berlin, Ma. He has a wife Karen, and daughter.