All the Pretty Things
Darkness and then flashes of lightning,
flashes of lightning and then darkness;
the raindrops start to knock on the door;
they knock harder and harder,
like some friend coming from far away
and looking for the warmth of a hearth,
then only the sweet cracking of firewood
in the stove,
like bones, like dry flowers, spitting their
odors in the room,
then the headlights of a car hit the seine
of the cool rain before disappearing behind
the hill
and then you are left all alone
and that’s how loneliness becomes so
beautiful.
• • •
Peycho Kanev is the author of 8 poetry collections and three chapbooks, published in the USA and Europe. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, such as: Rattle, Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Front Porch Review, Hawaii Review, Barrow Street, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Adirondack Review, Sierra Nevada Review, The Cleveland Review and many others. His new chapbook titled Under Half-Empty Heaven was published in 2019 by Grey Book Press. He has several nominations for the Pushcart Prize.