“Have a Good Day”
I take my items from the cashier and walk out
into the last of the evening shadows.
The sky is flecked in dark streaks, as it was
on the lone ride heading west toward the sun
with despair tailing me along the way.
A good day is one where no bitter note
will trouble my morning song.
Yet, even ordinary days are, I say to myself, filled
with just enough of the sublime
as to make you want to weep if you are alert.
Like a sudden sun shower on one side of the street
and on the other not a drop of rain falling.
Or just the light giving way to the dark every day.
With luck you could relive such moments in dreams
even if you only dreamed them up in the first place.
You may remember them well enough
to tell your children, stories that will last longer than
a keepsake inside an old shoebox tied with string.
Stories about words like sky, sun, rain, light.
And good.
And every unexpected thing.
.
Stephen Ruffus’ work has appeared, recently, in Woven Tale Press Magazine, 3rd Wednesday, The Shore, Poetica Review, and JMWW. He has poems appearing in Emerge Literary Journal, and I-70 Review. He was a semifinalist for the 2022 Morgenthau Prize and am a Pushcart nominee. He’s a founding poetry editor for Quarterly West and twice recipient of a Utah Original Writing Competition Award. While he has lived in three different states where he held fellowships and teaching positions, he is originally from New York City and still considers himself a New Yorker. Currently, he lives in Salt Lake City.
Stone Poetry Quarterly 