night is my storm lantern.
I carry it into this farmland
cutting into my harvest emotions
covered by snow
edge them in half
in front of me.
Do not laugh at me, a circus clown down,
I am sixty-six; my dimples show smiles, ripples, age.
This day is a lawn mower
even in Canadian December.
Machinery is shacked-up, covered.
I plow beneath the white surface
cut rotten leaves beneath settled snow.
In spring, the grass never pops up right.
All day, night is my storm lantern.
Michael Lee Johnson is a poet and freelance writer from Itasca, Illinois, heavily influenced by Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Irving Layton, Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen, and Allen Ginsberg. His new illustrated poetry chapbook, From Which Place the Morning Rises, and photo version of The Lost American: from Exile to Freedom are available from Lulu. Also, Challenge of Night and Day, and Chicago Poems. He has been published in more than 25 countries. He is also editor/publisher of seven poetry sites. He had the unique experience of failing creative writing in college.
