Still 1 By James B. Nicola

                                                                         Still 1

The liquidness of soul and stuff is found
with every melting of a season, or
a shooting star which, like the clinging drop
of any icicle, will join some ground
when it is warm enough. What it is for
may be a mystery; when it will stop,
another. But although the forecast says
a winter everlasting. . . . Nay, I still
believe in a summertime of years: The days
will warm and thaw—I know if only from
your heating heart and sparkling eyes—until
this moment melts into the age to come!

And you were but a stranger in the park
who sat on a bench and spoke with me, till dark.

James B. Nicola, a returning contributor, is the author of seven collections of poetry, the latest being Fires of Heaven (2021) and Turns & Twists (2022). His decades of working in the theater culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience, which won a Choice award.