The summer of 2020 left millions of people burning for answers and promised change that never came. Here, a newspaper editorial board attempts to give this summer a fitting name.

Summer of racial reckoning

When writers publish, they are sharing a story. But is that story really theirs to share? The speaker in this poem straddles their public and private lives, risking a dangerous fall between the two if they make the wrong move.

Someone Could Get Hurt

Weeks after the loss of her long-term boyfriend, the speaker begins to find comfort and peace...until her boyfriend crawls back into her life. Break-ups can be hard. Backsliding can be harder.

How to keep a relationship alive, according to experts

Although the speakers may vary a great deal, each of these poems challenges heartbreak in its own way.

Six killed in interstate chain pileup outside Flagstaff and Two Other Poems

In a world where nothing is what it seems and everything is cake, the speaker weighs his ability to gain trust against his ability to provide trust to others.

Man on hospital bed sends internet into meltdown as he turns out to be a cake

Isolated from family and friends during the Coronavirus pandemic, a recovering addict attempts to understand the world as seen through the television screen and his own self-destructive habits. 

Coronavirus world map: tracking the spread of the outbreak

A young man at a stoplight contemplates the similarities and differences he shares with the homeless man panhandling on the corner.

Patrick Wilcox

Selected work