J. T. Barbarese is the author of
New Science (University of Georgia, 1989) and an adaptation of Euripides’
Children of
Heracles (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999). His poetry and fiction
have appeared widely, and he is a frequent contributor to
The Sewanee Review and The Southern Review. He lives in Philadelphia, PA, and is an Assistant Professor of English at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ.
Joy
sometimes appears where nothing was
as wildflowers will
suddenly there in the afterstorm
on the banks of ragged hills
just as a passing trucker,
roaring by, happens to look
past the angles of his fingernails
and the cover of the matchbook
between his teeth, and asks himself what’s new in that old field
and feels his lonely surprised heart
shaken, and maybe healed.
