Three Poems
by Christopher Stolle
Poetry
Map Points
side by side/ westward bound/ traversing/
fire behind/ time burned/ festering/
music ahead/ familiar songs/ harmonizing
wide open/ full throttle/ accelerating/
route chosen/ destination improvised/ fulfilling/
rest stops/ broken resolutions/ expanding
horizons beckon/ shadows caution/ rubbernecking/
cruise control/ wind caresses/ comforting/
milieu forgotten/ ennui cured/ believing
Tracy's Rock
for Eugene Cernan
The moon is always blue
No one visits anymore
One man made a final leap
in 1972
etched his daughter’s initials
in lunar dust
but the moon has been
stood up ever since
lavished with enthusiastic promises
told that the future lies there
begged to continue to brighten the night
but probes just fly by
manmade satellites
destined for Mars or Venus
and Icarus’s star
and like comets and asteroids
and long-forgotten space junk
none of them stop
and no one and no AI
wave hello or goodbye
and nothing is heard on the moon
but growing microbes
that have surprises in store
for humans who return
Sunset Caravan
We practiced our strides and paces
We know what to say if anyone asks
We have fresh dreams despite dirty faces
We hope to show what’s behind our masks
We don’t have to defend our intent
We feel threatened to explain why we flee
We deserve a chance to regain what we spent
We believe we can find enough ears to hear our plea
We escaped horrors and fought burning suns
We kept going even when told we might not earn asylum
We arrived here for love but saw only guns
We would shed our skin to prove we’re in the Chordata phylum
We realize no law can ever change an unbleeding heart
But we braved enough to know you can’t stop once you start
About the Author
Christopher Stolle’s writing has appeared most recently in “Tipton Poetry Journal,” “Flying Island,” “Edify Fiction,” “Contour,” “The New Southern Fugitives,” “The Gambler,” “Gravel,” “The Light Ekphrastic,” “Sheepshead Review,” and “Plath Poetry Project.” He works as an acquisitions and development editor for Penguin Random House, and he lives in Richmond, Indiana.