October 2~ JOHN COMPTON

Poetry lovers, I'm pleased to shine the spotlight on new poetry by the talented John Compton. Thank you, John, for sharing your words with the SHINE international poetry community!

a sacrifice to the wild


the moon is malfunctioning


bringing in radioactive algae


causing bones
to grow flowers.


the first night
small buds


--a week later
whole gardens.

●●●●●

side effects to mortality

my heart's
irregular

--the killing of a boy

by mother's alcoholic friend
who pays the rent.

he lay along the bed
across a new salvador dali canvas

--pound against the chamber

somewhere there is a door,
a ribcage, a chest plate

--the blood trickles at first,
then hurt, then turns down

into the floor
--the beats

are erratic.

●●●●●

side effects to forgetting

i walk out of my clothes
--the naked afterglow

in the afternoon.
touch my body like you've

touched my body
like you've touched my body

like my body was never in doubt
like my body

has always had your intention.
my body, a leaf,

& autumn is close
--grab it before it falls.

grab me

before i

fall.

john compton (b. 1987), author of seventeen books/chapbooks, is a gay poet/writer who lives in kentucky with his husband josh and their dogs and cats, and mice. his latest full length book is my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store published with Flowersong Press (dec 2024); his latest chapbook is melancholy arcadia published with Harbor Editions (april 2024). he has been published in ONE ART more times then he has fingers on one hand. you can find his books, some poems, and other things here: https://linktr.ee/poetjohncompton

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