Poetry by Brian C. Billings
In the great Northeast,
I’ve soaked in rain;
I’ve chilled in snow.
I’ve had enough.
It’s time to go
to the water-strained Southwest,
where it’s best
to feel the kiss
of a dry metropolis
and bake to overdone
in the sun.
Abandoning myself to thirst,
I’ll brand myself the first
among the downward strays
who seek hot, vulnerable days.
Farewell to risk
when weather’s brisk
and tax that bites like a basilisk.
Farewell to rent
that puts a dent
in budgets that were all well-meant.
Farewell to bunkers.
No one hunkers
in the land of drills and junkers.
I’ll learn how to make do with less
in my arid new address.
Among the scrub I’ll decompress.
Sunscreen’s become my safest bet
for coping with the constant threat
of chaos where the climate’s wet.
Brian C. Billings is a professor of drama and English at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. His work has appeared in such journals as Ancient Paths, Antietam Review, The Bluebird Word, Confrontation, Evening Street Review, Glacial Hills Review, and Poems and Plays. Publishers for his scripts include Eldridge Publishing and Heuer Publishing. Read earlier poems from last March and December in The Bluebird Word.
