By Rodd Whelpley
Featured Art: “Random Toothpicks #4” by Thom Hawkins

On the top shelf are coffee cups
from which I never drank
and, next to all the ghosts
of passwords, sits a stout list
of dog names I will never use.
Life is a short place, littered
with vital, misremembered notions,
riddled with porcelain shards—
spoiled gifts from a son at summer camp
or souvenirs from crispy-aired mountains
where slow steam curled past the lips
of eco-friendly paper cups. Careful boys,
careful how you finally pack my house. 
Don’t miss that stuff that isn’t there.

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Rodd Whelpley manages an electric efficiency program for 32 cities across Illinois and lives near Springfield. His chapbooks are Catch as Kitsch Can (2018, Prolific Press), The Last Bridge is Home (2021, Kelsay Books), and Whoever Said Love (2022, ELJ Editions). His first collection is Blood Moon, Backyard Mountain (2023, Broadstone Books). http://www.RoddWhelpley.com