
A resident of Connecticut and a lover of all things…
Eyes were bait fish to be plucked near shore
and lifted into a luminous plume of net
but mine bit hard at the severe silver gleam –
liquified platinum in laminar flow. A tiny
crucifix of alloy shine, with a dull, low purr
and muffled rumble; its propeller spooling light
and spinning like a flaking tumbler of mercurial
glass pushing past tidelines at too slow a pace to
abandon its silken gather of anchor, calling to mind
how sudden descent often follows the weighted anguish
wayfarers carry, leaving us directionless, not knowing
what’s ahead or behind, sputtering through offshore
winds and slowly falling apart within an immense hollow
of blue ether just as we approach the deepest of waters.

A resident of Connecticut and a lover of all things chocolate, John Muro has authored two volumes of poems — In the Lilac Hour and Pastoral Suite — in 2020 and 2022, respectively. A third volume — A Bountiful Silence & Other Poems — will be published this year. Since the publication of his first book, John has been thrice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, twice nominated for the Best of the Net and, in 2023, he received a Grantchester Award. His work has appeared in such literary journals as Acumen, Delmarva, Grey Sparrow, Hyacinth Review, Moria, River Heron, Sky Island and the Valparaiso Review.