KENNETH POBO

Holding a Mirage

In Eagle River, Wisconsin,
the new owners removed
the wooden sign
that towered over Wall Street:
The Trading Post.  For seventy years
it welcomed us to town. 
All those storms yet it stood. 

In Philly, Uncle’s Bar died
and became U Bar.  Uncle’s often
had few customers, mostly
older dudes. I relaxed there,
being an older dude myself. 
The new bar is packed and fun,
but I miss the older dudes
and sleepy light coming in
from off the street. 

At the barber my white hair
falls onto the sheet.     
How to let things go? 
The past ignores me anyway. 

I call to it. 
Silence.

Kenneth Pobo (he/him) is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections.  Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and Lilac And Sawdust (Meadowlark Press) and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel Press). His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Asheville Literary Review, Nimrod, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, and elsewhere.