Artwork © Beaumont Sugar

 

Afterlife

Fear alert
a trifle late

A fatal tilt,
I falter

A life after
life…after life…

I, a rattler
…after life…
I, a flea
…after life…
I, a ferret
…after life…
I, a tall tree

Leafier, free,
I fare…fairer,
feel a little
relief

Tear a leaf,
I rattle,
I let a tear
fall, I fret
I fear

Tear a leaf,
alter life

Alter air fettle,
I fare far
frailer,
ill

Fate
a tall tale,
fate a liar

…after life…
I, a fire
I all a-flare

I fall flat.
…after–

 

Ronald Busse “My first children’s picture book, Where Is the Beach? (Newman Springs Publishing), is due out later this year. I have also had two poetry books and almost fifty individual poems published. I admit to being a music geek. Whether it’s playing (keyboards, trumpet, melodica, harmonica) or listening, music ranks up there with writing when it comes to passion. Ever since I was a kid (1970s and 80s), I’ve been an obsessed sponge, absorbing any music stat, and especially with checking the US’s Billboard charts every week religiously to this day.”

Beaumont Sugar is an essayist, painter, and poet. Their piece “Sheepdog, Standing in the Rain” was nominated for Best of the Net, and they won The Forge’s creative nonfiction contest in 2022 with “That Car Salesman Knew My Sister.” They’re doing the best they can.