Joseph Murphy is a professional editor and writer who lives in Michigan. His poetry has appeared in a number of journals, most recently in The Broad River, Summerset, and Driftwood reviews.
Fall 2010
Table of Contents - Vol. VI, No. 3
Joseph Murphy
After a Fire at a Jewelry Store
That he had gone unnoticed seemed miraculous.
How much longer
Could he poke among the ashes?
Where was that dream-sized jewel? His share.
Was it to remain imagined? One more hope
Soon to burst, its shards
Hollow as moonlight?
For that soot-covered man, better the hunt
Than to sit by the fountain and lunch;
Better to risk arrest
Than to lack.
Better yet, and easier, by night
To scoop coins from a fountain,
Taking what others had wished away.
But this was a singular chance.
Don’t we each harbor that greater end: a find
That can transform us?
So, more power to him! Let him pocket
His life-changing prize.
© Joseph Murphy
