JOSEPH BOYLE

OUT OF TIME

Sunlight hits the floor where there is no dust
or napping dog in the heat
to which we return, return

To a desk free of papers and books,
no human smell of unchanged bedsheets,
locked rooms of static air

There is a palm’s breadth between you and me,
the fan of your cool breath,
the burble of water somewhere

What is life but
taking pieces into
smaller pieces

__________

JOSEPH BOYLE (HE/HIM) LIVES IN SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, WITH HIS PARTNER AND THREE DOGS. HE WORKS AS A COUNSELOR AND SPENDS HIS FREE TIME METABOLIZING SUGARS AND ADMIRING THE WAY WIND MOVES THROUGH TREES. HIS POEMS HAVE APPEARED IN NEW NOTE POETRY, THE FIELD GUIDE POETRY MAGAZINE, THE MADRIGAL, INKSOUNDS, AND OTHERS.