People of The Rock

More than fifty years, they say
they have been sharing the same story
of love and dislike with this paradise
as more come in to bask in their private sun.

Somewhere well north of four scores
they persist with the same teenage ventures
resting on a rock the Inquisition would have delighted in
when their fires went out in wintry rains.

Sharing a makeshift breakfast of granola and
apple sauce in a bag, they giggle and
tell me stories of the good old days
good, bad, and ugly, but they return.

Their names escape me, their memory does not
beautiful under concrete wrinkles
they have brought new lives to this land
shared with me an eternity in a glimpse.

Fabrice Poussin

Poussin is a professor of French and World Literature. His work in poetry and photography has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and hundreds of other publications worldwide. Most recently, his collections In Absentia, and If I Had a Gun, Half Past Life were published in 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Silver Bow Publishing.