The Day After the Day Of (POEM)

  By Paul Ilechko

The sky sheds its tears. This morning

is the morning of the day after. The

day of mourning, the day after the day of. 

I beseech the sky to shed tears in order

to wash away the tears on my face.

This is the first day of the time after. This is

the beginning of a new time, the days of pain,

the days of sorrow. We are in mourning. The

sky looks down and sheds its tears for us. We

are the sad and mournful people under the sky.

Under the sky, the rain washes away the

muddy streaks left by our tears, the dirty

streaks of sadness displayed on the cheeks

of our desperate faces. We are grateful to the

sky. We are grateful for the cleansing rain.

The horizontal rain lashes our weary bodies.

The sharp needles of the rain tear into our

soft and needy flesh. This is the time of a

new cruelty. The rain is in the service of the

new age. The rain is a tool of hate and cruelty.

The rage of the new day. The anger and hate

turning rain into blood. This is the morning,

the morning after. This is the beginning of the

age of suffering. We beseech the rain to leave

us in peace. The rain laughs in our filthy faces.

The rain laughs in our blood-stained faces. We

are the people of the days before. We are under

the influence of the rain, the rain of the day after

the day of. We are overwhelmed by the rage,

the hate, the pain, of the day after the day of. 

Paul Ilechko was born in England but has lived most of his life in the USA. He currently lives in Lambertville, NJ with his girlfriend and a cat. He has at various times been a visual artist (painting and photography) and a writer of short fiction, with some level of success in both fields.

Paul has had poetry accepted by Ibis Head Review and the Peacock Journal and short fiction works by Grab-a-Nickel and Xelas magazines. In competitions, he was a finalist at Glimmer Train, and a semi-finalist at both the St Lawrence Book Award and Narrative Magazine. He has participated in group art shows in London, England, as well as in Princeton, New Brunswick and Metuchen (all NJ)

Contact Paul at pilechko@gmail.com