Jonathan Simkins lives in Denver’s RiNo district. He is the author with artist Justin Ankenbauer of the ekphrastic chapbook, Translucent Winds (Helikon Gallery & Studios, 2016). The title poem of his second chapbook, This Is The Crucible(LuNaMoPoLiS, 2017), was nominated for Best New Poets 2016. His poems have appeared in various publications, including Epigraph Magazine, Gingerbread House Literary Magazine, Literary Orphans, Requited Journal, and Wilderness House Literary Review, among others.

Bendith Fach

It’s never been a better time

To fall

From the aerie

To the forest floor,

Where the blasted tree

And the illuminated tree are a study

In contrasts of the same oak.

Open your mouth to the lightning,
Your lightning to the Great Bull’s tongue,
Your Great Bull’s tongue to the sky.

From the storm the smoke and fire,
The endless omen everywhere.

[image credit:  Lightning Strikes a Tree | Richard Gottaro]