“Happiness Will Not Be Foregone,” by Rodney Jones

MFA faculty member Rodney Jones‘ poem “Happiness Will Not Be Foregone” recently appeared in the Leon Literary Review. Read an excerpt below:

Happiness Will Not Be Foregone

If not the large happiness,
the small gift;
if not the grand piano,
the banjo or mandolin;
if not A Night in Tangiers,
twilight 1966 with
my beautiful sweetheart.

But why is she slumped
in the den, running
her hair through her teeth
while her mother and aunts hold forth
on the screen porch,
praying to the God
who will kill them?

Find the rest of this poem here: http://leonliteraryreview.com/2020/03/triangle-park-a-blast-of-light/