“July” by Tim Suermondt

The young women are sunbathing

in the little postage-stamp of a park—

how serious the quest for a tan.

I’m in my study, working on a poem

and a ham sandwich with the poem

continuing to get the better of me.

But I wrestle the poem hard, ruthlessly

and it succumbs to my dictates. Magnanimous,

I offer it a bite of the sandwich.

Tim Suermondt’s sixth full-length book of poems “A Doughnut And The Great Beauty Of The World” will be forthcoming from MadHat Press in 2021. He has published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Stand Magazine, december magazine, On the Seawall, Poet Lore and Plume, among many others. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.