"The Wave in My Heart is a Great Green Wave" by Shannon Johnson

Originally from Texas, Shannon spent twelve years in Turkey and is currently located in Québec City, where she is pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology. Her debut poetry collection, Such Excess of Light (2021), was released last year with Kelsay Books. Recent work has appeared in CERASUS, Viewless Wings Press, Agapanthus Collective, The Anti-Languorous Project, Plainsongs, and Wild Roof Journal. You can connect with her at shannonlise.com.

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THE WAVE IN MY HEART IS A GREAT GREEN WAVE


You and I know all about
how the rain comes late

like an afterthought, like a
kiss you could have given.

Time is a story full of green
windows closing, mostly forever.

Every morning somebody
else who could have been

saved, saying, what light it
was, that almost found me.

Study the dried-up places
on the dark road to God’s

house, find out how much
longer you should have

waited, where you should
have stood beneath the

window, what it would have
taken – such small wings.

If the person had woken up
one more time, maybe it

would have been the day
they noticed their name –

the watergreen shine of it,
field of lilies falling to light.