Sebastian Melmoth by Gloria Monaghan

Look, the cat is crying:
a small tear sits in his left eye.
Winter brought three storms in 21 days.

There is a thin veil of snow settling on the car,
on the branch of the mulberry tree.
The street is slick, and the children have gone
on the bus to a school
they will eventually forget.

Previously published in Lily Poetry Review

Gloria Monaghan is a professor of Humanities at Wentworth Institute in Boston. She has published three books of poetry, Flawed (Finishing Line Press, 2011; nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award), The Garden (Flutter Press, 2015), and False Spring (Adelaide). Her poems have appeared in The Alexandria Quarterly, 2River, Adelaide, The Aurorean, and Nixes Mate Review, among others. Her poem “Inner Grace” won the 2018 Adelaide Voices Poetry Award and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.