Kevin A. Risner

whenever you go 
bursting into bloom in
spring never forget me 
sitting listless,
with branches bare and waiting 
to open

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.