Green Pearls When illness stills you, and worry weights your limbs—when you rub your eyes to wake up and the rose light of evening slants across the dusty table—you take a walk, but the neighborhood is empty—even the birds have flown, taking with them the furnishings of sound that make the world inhabitable. You remember Midwest autumns—how herds of maple leaves skittered across the blacktop. Nestled among tree trunks and leafless shrubs, they found their place of winter rest. You, too, hurry down the driveway, brittle as the dried husk of a seed pod. But within you— green pearls in a frail shell.
Daniel Thomas’s second collection of poetry, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn, was published in 2022. His first collection, Deep Pockets, won a 2018 Catholic Press Award. He has published poems in many journals, including Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Poetry Ireland Review, The Bitter Oleander, Atlanta Review, and others. More info at danielthomaspoetry.com.
Amethyst Review 