Poetry by Sterling Warner

               ​​​kelly bell photography CC



Flowerchild Dementia

Walking down 19th Avenue, 
hugging parking meters, Dawn 
imagined she’d stepped backwards 
in time, returned to Golden Gate Park,
expressing warmth unrequited 
mixing with strangers who flocked

at the panhandle to hang with hipsters
or crack open walnuts, feed squirrels
red & grey that scurried across 
San Franciscan shoulders searching 
for husked kernels & questions with answers
nature’s kabuki theatre in a Japanese Tea Garden.

Between fleeting perceptions, Dawn recalls dancing 
like a whirling dervish under shady oak trees,
her freewheeling spirit acts out spectator phantasies;  
déjà vu visitors wave, nod, smile, toss coins 
in open guitar cases unaware of her street musician
disconnect outside of entertainment magic;

a whiff of patchouli oil or old familiar tunes conjure
her hazy memories—brief glimpses that quickly fade;
still, Dawn embraces her dementia, merges past & present, 
allows unannounced touches & soft summer kisses 
to pepper masses, confer indiscriminate blessings, 
preserve intimate exchanges for phantom dream lovers.

A Washington-based author, educator, and Pushcart nominee for poetry, Warner’s works have appeared in many international literary magazines, journals, and anthologies such as  Street Lit., The Ekphrastic Review, The Fib Review, Lothrorien Poetry Journal., The Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine, and The Flatbush Review. Warner also has written six volumes of poetry, including Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Memento Mori: A Chapbook Redux, Edges, Rags & Feathers, and Serpent’s Tooth: Poems (2021)—as well as. Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories. Currently, Warner spends his time writing, turning wood, and fishing.

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