Diminuendo

John Paul Davis

Small Lichen on Goatskin Vellum
Sandra Wilcoxon

You could say there was a cantankerous septet

in one chamber of my heart, rambunctious

& daring, hot horns & tumble drums,

a Monday morning downtown streetscape

right at rush hour in another, the thunderstorm

you remember waking you up as a child

in the third & in the fourth the world’s entire population

of dogs on garbage day, until I met you.

Then all that bustle & clamor began to quiet

a fraction of a decibel a week

hardly noticeable at first, but definitely the volume

was lowering, & now, fifteen years later

the band is playing slow ballads as background

texture; it’s Sunday noon with downtown deserted;

the rain is the soft summer kind my grandmother

called “fuzzing”; the dogs are all asleep in a pile

in a sunbeam on the carpet. My doctor

used to worry about my blood pressure

but last checkup she tapped my forehead

three times with a tiny silver hammer

to make sure I was there & maybe this is the part

of the movie right before the credits

when the characters finally relax & smile,

maybe this is the section of the scripture

that just lists the livestock everybody owns

& all the begetting, the Book of Us

chapter fifty, verses 1-47, your smile

begat my smile begat your smile

begat my smile begat

your smile begat mine.

John Paul Davis is the author of Climbing A Burning Rope (University of Pittsburgh, 2024) and Crown Prince Of Rabbits (Great Weather For Media, 2017). His poems have appeared in numerous journals including Florida Review, Elysium Review, Beaver Magazine, and others. You can find out more about him at www.johnpauldavis.org or find out too much about him on BlueSky and Instagram.

Sandra Wilcoxon started painting in watercolor in 2020, and soon focused on Botanical Art. It is an exciting and challenging art form, depicting and interpreting nature in great detail. She loves texture and discovery and the discipline of daily sketching and practice, and finds it gratifying to see the work grow and evolve as she becomes better at combining paper, paint, pencil and pen to achieve the desired effect. Prior to developing her Botanical series, she worked in mixed media using beads and pearls woven into three-dimensional sculptures and statement jewelry. She’s also done quite a bit of drawing, printmaking and clay work. See more of Sandra’s work at www.skwilcoart.com or on Instagram.