Standing at the Brink of Feeling Alive, by M. Riley

Gas, by Edward Hopper (USA) 1940.

​Standing at the Brink of Feeling Alive

He wears suit and tie
no matter the weather or occasion.
It’s the way of his world.
Keeping appearance for the trees.
A professional.

The concerns of the man are real:
his hands,
tools for the machine that moves us.

He’s the keeper of the journey beyond.
His place is the last stop
or the first sign of hope
depending on the state
of your soul;
the map of mind.

But his world is on fire now.
Even Pegasus, covered
in his mother’s blood,
flees these frozen flames
into the absence
of a dying sun.

M. Riley

M. Riley is a poet and library director.  His poems have appeared in many anthologies over the past few years. His most recent poems have been included in Dos Gatos Press 100 Word Anthology, Weaving the Terrain, and Mutabilis Press, Enchantment of the Ordinary (2019). He has been honoured to read his work at bookstores, poetry festivals, and more recently at The Jung Center in Houston, TX.

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