Bewilderment

by Harry Calhoun

It kept my father awake
for many of his last nights —

the amazement
that it could happen to him.

And tonight restless
I try to hold my wife

and help her rest
and finally I turn sleepless

to myself and clasp
my helpless hands


across my chest

Somehow the gemstone

by Harry Calhoun

There’s a topaz that struggles
to be a sapphire.

Its eminence glows yellow

as saffron in its tiny vial.

The struggle of that
and that which can never be

defines us. Somehow the gemstone

must eventually or never can

become the spice.

Head over heels

by Harry Calhoun

Tell me you’re not leaving.
Take away the God I prayed to
in my sky-blue boyhood bedroom
and asked to take my soul

if I died in my sleep. Take away
my Santa Claus and Christmas
but don’t take my heart-
felt childhood dream — you

and me with love between us.
Don’t take the four-leaf clover
I sought so long to pick

and keep pressed in my heart
like ZuZu’s petals
stored lovingly in daddy’s pocket