Kevin A. Risner

Back when
The world fell
And I knew
Everything was lost
I kept swimming
In the lake
Until the ice formed

The sky grew dark
Into a roaring fire
It was the final day
In middle-of-spring fog
Even when I couldn't see
Breezes licking my ears
One last time

I loved it when I found out
Each paper thin night
Before the past told me
Always pressed tightly
The lighthouse, on and alert
Exposed to the chills
Before it stopped

Kevin A. Risner is the author of Do Us a Favor (Variant Literature, 2021); You Thought This Was Just Gonna Be About Cleveland, Didn’t You (Ghost City Press, 2022); and There’s No Future Where We Don’t Have Fire (ELJ Editions, 2025). He also has work published or forthcoming in Great Lakes Review, Gordon Square Review, Moist Poetry Journal, The Ocean State Review, VERDANT, and others.