Blue by Susan Tepper

Keep those eyes dim

just north of downcast

supply lines roll shaky

this part of town

used to be shade trees 

moms with kids 

dripping ice cream cones

—strange how the seasons 

You’d think at least 

candles in squat clear glass

a bit of warm light

on the tables

—proprietor wants 

dark and cool air flow

blowing blue, baby, 

O so blue

Susan Tepper is the author of eight published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent book just out in June is a road novel titled “What Drives Men.” It was shortlisted at American Book Fest Best Book Awards. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Nominations, a Pulitzer Prize Nomination for the novel “What May Have Been” (Cervena Barva Press, and currently being adapted for the stage), NPR’s Selected Shorts Series, Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award, Best Story of 17 Years of Vestal Review, Shortlisted 7th in the Zoetrope Novel Contest (2003), Best of the Net and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker.