Gold Dust

Loretta Diane Walker

December 13, 2021

An entourage of cycles

park beneath an umbrella of golden leaves—

soft yellow dust wafts across the seats,

their owners clueless

the Leprechaun of Light rubbed the rib of their tires

with his magical hands.

Loretta Diane Walker, an award-winning poet, multiple Pushcart Nominee, and Best of the Net Nominee, won the 2016 Phyllis Wheatley Book Award for poetry, for her collection, In This House (Blue Light Press). Loretta is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. Her work has appeared in various literary journals, magazines, and anthologies throughout the United States, Canada, India, Ireland, and the UK. She has published five collections of poetry. Her manuscript Word Ghetto won the 2011 Bluelight Press Book Award. Loretta received a BME from Texas Tech University and earned a MA from The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. She teaches elementary music at Reagan Magnet School, Odessa, Texas. Her latest collection from Blue Light Press is Day Begins When Darkness is in Full Bloom.