Heaven Knows
By John Zedolik
Those blackberries at the bottom
of the neighborhood’s hill above
the busway where I relished my
secret juicy treat beyond the diesel
exhaust must have migrated
to the stars like my mother,
who no longer rolls the koláče
and fills them with poppy seed
that only induced bliss instead
of narcotic sleep even though
I often consumed an entire roll
in a sitting after having been
mailed the boxed ambrosia
of the Carpathians through care and love
that is now lacking in my world like
the slope city-stripped, no doubt
by a dutiful public-works crew
just doing its job unlike
the driver and his wrong-way rush
in reverse toward the crushing
of my baker who will coax with skill
the sweet dough to rise no more.

John Zedolik is an adjunct English instructor at a number of universities in Pittsburgh. He has published poetry in many journals in numerous countries. In 2019, he published a full-length collection, entitled Salient Points and Sharp Angles (CW Books), which is available through Amazon. His iPhone is his primary poetry notebook.