By John RC Potter

Across Time

Across the reflections of time, I see you.
I bite my lip, murmur your name, and remember.
The memories come back so rapidly,
but I do not call your name, no.
Instead, I brush the hair from my eyes,
and in solitude, I turn away.
Even so, I will remember the memories
and I will cry for the lack of time;
for I know life as it is.
So again, I give one last look in your direction,
I drop my eyes, touch my lips, and cry.
For I know that this chance meeting
as fateful as it seems,
will never happen again…

Stand Tall

Stand tall my friend,
for it isn’t the end.
Carry me over the fields afar.
Run hard and run fast.
There is no time to waste.
There’s someone on our trail,
who won’t be there for long.
As long as you run quickly,
we’ll make it to the town
where everything will be safe and sound.
And home we will be once more.

The Cyclone

***

John RC Potter is from Canada but lives in Istanbul, and is an international educator (currently university counsellor, formerly principal & teacher). He has experienced a revolution (Indonesia), air strikes (Israel), earthquakes (Turkey), boredom (UAE), and blinding snow blizzards (Canada), the last being the subject of his story, “Snowbound in the House of God” (Memoirist, May 2023). His poems and stories have been published in a range of magazines and journals, most recently in Blank Spaces, (“In Search of Alice Munro”, June 2023),  Literary Yard (“She Got What She Deserved”, June 2023) & Freedom Fiction (“The Mystery of the Dead-as-a-Doornail Author”, July 2023).