POETRY BY G.O. CLARK

G. O. Clark’s writing has been published in Asimov’s, Analog, Space & Time, Midnight Under The Big Top, Daily SF, HWA Poetry Showcase VII and many other publications over the last 30 plus years. He’s the author of 15 poetry collections, the most recent, Easy Travel to the Stars, 2020. His third fiction collection, Aliens & Others, came out in 2021 from Hiraeth Publishing. He won the Asimov’s Readers Award for poetry in 2001, and was Stoker Award finalist in 2011. He’s retired, and lives in Davis, California. 

You can learn more about him HERE

TINY HOUSES OF THE FORGOTTEN

The abandoned cemetery
is covered with wildflowers,

orange poppies, dandelions,
lupines, miners lettuce and more.

Its grave markers, headstones, and
solidified angels forgotten by all

but the lingering ghosts, monk-like
ravens and rats.

Its dozen or so mausoleums,
now tiny houses for the homeless,

ragtag skeletal survivors,
their conversations with the dead

echoing in the night, world outside
speeding by on cruise control.

SOCIAL DISTANCING

Mosquitoes and fleas
loath it, not being able
to get a quick fix, their
short lives cut even shorter.

Dogs out walking
their owners, miss the
random  attention of strangers,
and suffer from nightmares
about faceless masters.

Six feet removed,
vampires are forbidden
any  intimacy with their victims,
abandoned streets adding
to their pent up frustration.

For  human beings,
touching or not touching
is a two-sided coin, conditions
of the toss both atmospheric
and emotional,
the human heart
always but a few beats away
from breaking quarantine;
closing the distance.

OUT ON THE LIMB OF TOMORROW

Sitting in a rusting folding chair,
beneath the tree of phantom limbs,

the ghosts of blue jays, sparrows,
mocking birds fluttering their wings,
chirping and sharing their songs,

an ethereal wind rustling the invisible
leaves, buffeting the groaning branches,

as the apocalyptical sun sinks into
the lifeless sea, I welcome the cool night,
dread the darkness, and wait

for it all to start over again come
sunrise, survivor comforted by ghosts.