Raymond Byrnes

Sorting

Infrequently, usually during a move, he pulls
a yearbook from a box and flips some pages.
“Bobby, I’ll always remember Homecoming.
What a riot! See you this summer!! Love, Pam.”

Ruthlessly downsizing for a condo, it’s time
to trash this stuff or give it to his grandson
for some laughs. After all, his mind retains
some image files that cannot be deleted

like when he hears a classmate scream 
in bright orange flames enveloping a car,
like when the hockey coach benches him and
does not tell him why, like when Linda Flynn
holds him close, confident in her desire, like when
he’s told Sputnik calls for science; drop the art.

 

After starting his career teaching college English, Raymond Byrnes managed communications for the U.S. Geological Survey/NASA Landsat Earth-observation satellite program for many years. Raised in Minnesota, retired in Virginia, his recent poems have appeared in Third Wednesday, Shot Glass Journal, Panoply, Typishly, Waters Deep: A Great Lakes Poetry Anthology, and elsewhere.