Patricia Carragon, a 2025 Best of the Net nominee from Poets Wear Prada, hosts the Brownstone Poets Reading Series and is editor-in-chief of its annual anthology. She also edits Sense & Sensibility Haiku Journal and is listed on The Haiku Foundation registry. Her jazz poetry collection, Stranger on the Shore, was published by Human Error Publishing. Her novel Angel Fire (Alien Buddha Press, 2020) and books from Poets Wear Prada, including Meowku (2019) and The Cupcake Chronicles (2017), round out her work. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Narrow Daylight
(inspired by Diana Krall)
Narrow daylight
crosses my room.
Winter lingers —
the rain as snowflakes
Springtime hesitates —
trees in confusion,
crocuses stuck underground.
The wind, frustrated —
like those who rely on calendars.
Cameras click —
more posts on social media.
The pale ones march again,
rain or shine —
claim their pledge for justice
but do they understand
those who struggle outside their bubbles?
Their generational curses will never know.
The pale ones still point fingers
from left and to right,
and back again.
I witness them and myself.
Hope is a four-letter joke.
Another day in Paradise Lost —
cultures clash like the wind.
Prices rise —
a paycheck away
from life on the streets
We do our civic duty —
ballots cast our uncertainty.
The gilded one
watches this nation implode
and his army disperse.
Is the revolution coming,
or did 1984 transcend
from being a number?
Did kindness lose its definition?
Did love become war?
Did words get sanitized
to fit an agenda?
Spring is struggling.
Bare stems of daffodils
and tulips —
wait to blossom.
One crocus shows
its purple head.
Spring’s narrow daylight
crosses this promenade.
The gulls gather
on the rocks below.
The temperature rises —
maybe for summer
and peace of mind?
The salt air brushes my face.
