We have a brand new poem by Tom Sexton, our far-flung contributor and faithful reader who is in Alaska this time of year. Tom, as many of our readers know, is the author of several books of poetry including “A Ladder of Cranes” (Univ. of Alaska Press, 2015) and “Bridge Street at Dusk” (Loom Press, 2012), a collection of Lowell poems. Tom was Poet Laureate of Alaska for one term and is in the Lowell High School hall of fame. In the American West, Tom is admired as a poet of the natural world, while in Eastern states he is especially appreciated as an urban poet, particularly due to his large body of writing about his hometown, Lowell. Here’s the new poem.—-PM

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The Man in the Moon

When I was a boy, I thought the Man

in the Moon was looking down

and smiling; when I asked

my father why, he said, “Because

he’s had a little claret before supper,

it keeps him warm and smiling.”

He must be cold without a scarf,

I thought, then looking up I smiled.

Looking back now, when steam was rising

from the power plant down the block,

it made him appear a little wobbly

just like my father coming up Oak

Street hill late for supper once again

while my mother ladled out cold soup.

—Tom Sexton (c) 2018