Marc Sheehan
August, 2018
Ceiling fans spin.
Beach towels and swimsuits
drape themselves over porch rails.
Pre-dawn lightening flickers
along the horizon, but brings
neither rain nor thunder.
Even watered lawns turn brown—
mowed finally on the Ides
clippings barely half-fill the bag.
Somehow, you have managed to keep
the flowerbox pansies alive,
though they droop down
like fuchsia from a hanging basket.
Along the festival parade route
flags and bunting remain
long after the clown band has clomped off.
Marc J. Sheehan is the author of two full-length poetry collections —— Greatest Hits (New Issues Press) and Vengeful Hymns (Ashland Poetry Press), and a chapbook of poems, Limits to the Salutary Effects of Upper Midwestern Melancholy (Split Rock Review). He has published stories, poems, essays and reviews in numerous literary magazines including Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, and Michigan Quarterly Review. His flash fiction has been featured on NPR’s Three-Minute Fiction series as well as on the program Selected Shorts. He lives in Grand Haven, Michigan.
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