Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

Sonnet of Desolation

Time alights
like ash into water,
disturbing ripples, making
a mess
of what was once clear.

“Desolation Row” still plays
somewhere on a mixtape
in a life you didn’t lead, a man
with no position
to abuse.

The life of the mind warps
around its last kiss.
Everything’s denouement
from here on in.  Inside
of nothing, a great dark sky

with no kites or airplanes or meteors
to put an end to this timeline
in the way love once might.

Mark Lamoureux lives in New Haven, CT. He is the author of six collections of poems: Frimaire (White Stag Publishing, 2023), Horologion (Poet Republik, Ltd., 2020), It’ll Never Be Over for Me (Black Radish Books, 2016), 29 Cheeseburgers + 39 Years (Pressed Wafer, 2013), Spectre (Black Radish Books, 2010), and Astrometry Organon (BlazeVOX Books, 2008).

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx