PAUL ILECHKO

THE CONNECTING WEB

I decide to wait for you
knowing that you have friends
and that they form a web
or series of interlocking webs
and I am able to show patience
some of them are married
extending the mapped extremities
some of them are only seen in summer
when the sun beats down
on central Pennsylvania
where there are eagles and ravens
circling beneath a silent sky
it’s like the day at the movie theater
when the sound stopped working
and for those few seconds
you saw the world from a different angle
the way I see my life from a new angle
when measuring the intersections
of my web with yours
unruffled by complications
as on a day when both the sun
and the moon are in the sky together
and we are unaware that in the distant
margins of our demesnes
a volcano has erupted or a tsunami hit
and for those people
everything is lost
their structures shattered
irreparable
and we are unable to help.

Paul Ilechko is a British American poet and occasional songwriter who lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. His work has appeared in many journals, including The Bennington Review, The Night Heron Barks, Southword, Permafrost, and The Inflectionist Review. His first book is scheduled for 2025 publication by Gnashing Teeth Publishing.