Sweet Old World By Jim Bourey

A rusty ceiling fan beats an irregular rhythm

and it might be in a run-down Florida motel

cooling a writer making lines leading

into a sad story of failure

and love lost. Truth

is, it’s in Elmira and the snow is piled up

and the fan is running because it always will

until the switch is fixed. Knotty pine walls,

industrial grade carpet. A faint odor

reminiscent of all the bodies

who have struggled here mingles

with the sharp aroma of cheap bourbon

in a plastic cup. In the morning the meeting

will seal a big deal and I’ll turn my car

north towards home.

Bills will be paid; wife and kids

will get new shoes.

And Lucinda will sing

on my CD player

about her “Sweet Old World” as miles

and years just slip away.

Jim Bourey is an old poet who divides his year between the Adirondack Mountains and Dover, Delaware. His chapbook “Silence, Interrupted” was published in 2015 by the Broadkill River Press. His work has appeared in Mojave River Review, Paddock Review, Gargoyle and the Broadkill Review and other journals and anthologies. He was first runner up in the Faulkner-Wisdom Poetry Competition in 2012 and 2016. He has served as an adjudicator for the Poetry Out Loud competition in Delaware. In his North Country months, he is active with the St. Lawrence Area Poets and has taken part in Art/Poetry projects in Saranac Lake.