New Poetry by Mike W. Blottenberger

Three Roses and a Half-Empty Bottle of Cognac

  - for Edgar Allan Poe

Sir Edgar,

Mister Poe,

tell me:

who places

the three roses and

a half-empty bottle of cognac

by your grave

every Halloween night?

Last October,

on the Raven’s favorite holiday,

I hid behind the brick wall of the cemetery,

but the fog veiled your mysterious admirer

and your anonymous toaster

from my view.

And though I missed that elusive face,

I saw the four offerings left there.

It was cold,

and they were lying beside your marble slab,

because the world’s still haunted

by your genius.

- © Mike W. Blottenberger 2022

Mike W. Blottenberger lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania. His poetry has appeared in The Baltimore Review, Gulf Coast Review, James White Review, The Pennsylvania Review, Unbroken Journal, and The William & Mary Review.