2 Poems by Bryan R. Monte

The Curse

Thrown across the room,
the crumpled yellow
legal page half opens
against a baseboard:
a knotted fist or
an autumn rose.


Petrichor

After a long, hot, summer drought,
rain falls on dusty ground,
mixes with amber grass,
stunted corn and trees,
which have already shed
green seeds and yellow leaves,
exhaling ozone and plant oils
in their last-minute reprieve:
the golden blood of the gods
finally falling on arid earth.


Bionote

Bryan R. Monte is an anthropologist, memoirist, and poet. He was a finalist for the Hippocrates Prize in 2021 and the Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award in 2021 and 2025. His poetry has appeared in the Arlington Literary Journal, Assaracus, Friends Journal, Italian Americana, Irreantum, Kaleidoscope, Poetry Pacific, the South Florida Poetry Journal, and Sunstone, and in the anthologies Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets (Sundress Press, 2013), Immigration & Justice For Our Neighbors, (Celery City Press, 2017), Voices from the Fierce Intangible World (SoFloPoJo Press, 2019), and The Hippocrates Prize, (Hippocrates Press, 2021 and 2022). He edits and publishes Amsterdam Quarterly.