PROSE POETRY

DANIEL ROMO

---

JUNE GLOOM

I appreciate the ambiguity and wet blanket-ness of a wishy-washy sky. Is breaking free from darkness an achievement to be celebrated if there was already so much sun and certainty? Not many scholars know the honorary degree birthed the asterisk. After the man in front of the grocery store holding a sign that read “Free Hugs” was embraced by the woman who said, Sometimes I just wanna be gone from this world, he reminded and chided her, Ma’am, you possess a Ph.D. in worth. The forecast can only call for tropical storms named after the worst version of yourself when weather dictates moods. Clouds are never an inconvenience, but to be celebrated as if a mixture of recovering and moving on from trauma for the world to behold before they dissipate, leaving room for interpretation that allows for so many lost heads and poor men’s justification for self-pity.

---

---

Daniel Romo is the author of Bum Knees and Grieving Sunsets (FlowerSong Press 2023) and other books. He lives, teaches, and rides his bikes in Long Beach, CA. More at danieljromo.com.