My poem “Asphalt Daydream” has been published in Pennsylvania Bards Western PA Poetry Review 2026.
Asphalt Daydream
When traffic slows to maneuver
around a raccoon's fetid remains
I ask myself
what is death but an inconvenience
a concrete fresco of clotted gore?
Once past the unsightly reminder
of life's wicked truth that is
our dishonest mortality
we resign ourselves to think
no more of life's cracking pavement.
At a red light, a school bus rumbles by
with a clueless children's choir
who know nothing
of fading stars made from tears
or wilting flowers lost in time.
But do any of us comprehend what
it means to live and die or does
it even matter
when we can't look beyond the falsehoods
of our immortal pretenses?
When I think of the crimson streak
a ragdoll scattered over that lonely road
I can't help
but envision my future self staring back
from the decay of an angel.
I would weep for the raccoon
the school children and myself
but I can't
because the traffic light turned green
and existence carries on without memory.
Caleb James K. 