A HEARTBEAT BETWEEN
They’re sitting on the patio outside.
Three people, a woman and two men,
perched in black onyx chairs
at a matching round table.
Summer heat and sunlight retreat
to autumnal cool and
the ink-gray wash of twilight.
The season is
a different animal at night.
They talk, calmly, of everything
and nothing—a conversation
that could be happening anywhere,
with anyone on any evening:
in Egypt, on the banks of the Nile,
during the heretic reign of Akhenaten;
in Rome, with Vandals clawing
at the empire’s gates;
in modern America, within earshot
of a Midwestern city’s death rattle.
The falling darkness seems
to insulate them from time.
Three explosions, in quick succession,
scare the words away. A shootout?
A drive-by? Rioting?
Any one’s a possibility.
The woman and the men,
jolted from their dream,
retreat quickly from the patio.
There’s no insulation.
There’s only here, now—
a heartbeat between
beginning and end.
As ever.
REFUGEE FROM A LOST AGE
Wexford, age 55,
and Lorca, age 34,
are warehousemen.
They’re sitting in the employees’ lounge
on a coffee break—
though neither of them drinks coffee.
Somehow, the topic of conversation
drifts to the TV shows they watched as kids.
“Black Sheep Squadron,” says Wexford,
between sips of Gatorade.
“I loved that show.
World War II fighter pilots,
zooming over the Pacific.”
Lorca stares at him blankly.
“You must’ve seen it,” says Wexford.
“It starred Robert Conrad.
You know, Robert Conrad—
from The Wild, Wild West?
It was a pretty big deal.”
Lorca cracks open a Red Bull
and takes a big gulp.
“Sorry,” he says, burping.
“Never heard of it.
That was your time.”
The way Lorca says “your,”
with a mix of puzzlement and pity,
makes Wexford realize that
he’s not Wexford at all.
He’s actually Rip Van Winkle,
refugee from a lost age.
Jack Phillips Lowe is a Chicago area native. His poems have appeared in Cajun Mutt Press, Clutch 2025 and The Literary Underground, among other outlets. Lowe’s selected poems, Flashbulb Danger (Middle Island Press, 2018), is available from Amazon. His newest chapbook, Brautigan’s Blue Moon (Instant Oblivion Press, 2025), is eagerly awaiting you at lulu.com.