ISSUE FIVE: “Best Day of the Year” by Thelma Reyna

Best Day of the Year 

Write it in your heart that every day
is the best day of the year.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

yes emerson yes except that one when his heart crashed and i couldn’t make it throb
again though i was down the hall waiting as his eyes went blank

and though i used to save him from the precipice time and again bedside wife-hawk when
whitecoats erred or nurses flitted from his room too soon

and though my fingers drew a blessing on his forehead kissed his nose tweaked his chin
and he said i’ll see you in an hour

and though they wheeled him like a mummy down the hall we knew so well smiling and
unafraid of tiny nicks they’d slit into his arm

and though you’re always right emerson your brain transcending us i must disagree
emerson for that one day that day that one day I couldn’t save him

THELMA REYNA

Thelma T. Reyna’s books have collectively won 14 national literary awards. She has written six books: a short story collection, The Heavens Weep for Us and Other Stories; two poetry chapbooks — Breath & Bone and Hearts in Common; and three full-length poetry collections — Rising, Falling, All of Us; Reading Tea Leaves After Trump, which won six national book honors in 2018; and Dearest Papa: A Memoir in Poems (Golden Foothills Press, 2020). As Poet Laureate of Altadena, 2014-2016, she edited the Altadena Poetry Review anthology in 2015 and 2016. Thelma’s fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in literary journals, anthologies, textbooks, blogs, and regional media for over 25 years. She was a Pushcart Prize Nominee in poetry in 2017. She received her Ph.D. from UCLA.

Headshot: Courtesy of the Author

Photo Credit: Staff