While the campfire burns We take turns Going as far as we dare Into the charcoal night How dark it gets Without city lights A sky full of pinpoints In a black blanket And fear only A few steps away And then such happiness When seeing your face In this firelight.
BIO: Gary Bloom was born in Minneapolis and attended what is now Minnesota State University- Mankato, where he majored in sociology. He later studied computer science at The University of Minnesota and The University of New Orleans. He has been a teaching assistant in a psychiatric hospital, an English teacher in Taiwan, a driving instructor for the disabled, and a computer programmer. He was stock boy of the year at Evenson’s Cards and Gifts in 1973. His articles, photography, and poetry have been published in newspapers, magazines and websites, including Grit, Milwaukee Magazine, Pif, The Buffalo News, The Grand Rapids Press, Oasis, Mankato Poetry Review, Art Times Journal, Poetry Quarterly, and Black Diaspora. He is retired and lives in Mississippi.