Hard Candy
Images from Freepik
The confections you keep
in a milk-glass bowl
hold fast, freckled
with dust and faded by sun.
Think bolted bric-a-brac
with colors leaking,
glazing the rim.
Now wondering if, deep
in sleep, our souls
too might settle
in rigid union
with breath, extracted
only as the body’s breaking
and eyes grow dim.
Need more great poetry and stories? Find plenty more at the MockingOwl Roost, from our authors and poets around the world.
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- The Girl in the Sand – an Allegory
- Elizabethan Sonnet for Autumn – a Poem
- The Book – Emotive Fiction
- Meatloaf for One – Unhappily Ever After Flash Fiction

John Muro
A resident of Connecticut and a lover of all things chocolate, John Muro has authored two volumes of poems - In the Lilac Hour and Pastoral Suite - in 2020 and 2022, respectively. He is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, a nominee for the Best of the Net Award and, more recently, he received a 2023 Grantchester Award. John's work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Acumen, Barnstorm, Delmarva, Moria, River Heron, Sky Island and the Valparaiso Review.
You may follow John on Instagram.




