Sunday Thunderstorm

Betsy Joseph

June 30, 2024

I had just begun a quilt-patterned sleep

with colors of canyons both muted and deep

with images comforting, then impossible to keep.

Sudden pounding of rain altered the somnolent beat,

concluding my dearly coveted peace

so early this gray June morning.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems which have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron. In addition, she and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, have produced two books, Benches and Lighthouses, which pair her haiku with his black and white photography.