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Paul D. McGlynn has had poems in more than 215 journals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia, three of which have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His chapbook, Magical Regression, was published by AlphaBeat Press. His greatest influences have been William Blake, Allen Ginsberg, Wallace Stevens, art, travel and love (not necessarily in that order), plus growing up in Detroit.
The Choice
It came to this: she had to choose
Between a prophet and a fool.
So because his hands were scrubbed quite pink,
And because he wore a fine blue suit,
And because he spoke reverently of Gawd,
She chose the fool, chose him gladly,
Slipped him sly winks across the room,
Entwined her dainty fingers with his,
Spoke highly of Gawd herself.
She bore him children, little fools
With eyes as empty as the sky.
She hardly thinks of the prophet now,
Except on nights of despicable moons,
Milky in their mush, vague stars,
With no train’s cry, without a wind;
Then she regrets the prophet’s absence,
How he saw bright things she never saw,
The way he’d fill the dark somehow.