When he had finished writing, and crossing out
and standing and rewriting, and looking
out his window, and feeling the sun
so present with him as it shone through the glass
that it felt like a lover, when he saw the gulls
whirl and screech, and he sensed they were
talking in the language he understood if he just
sat and listened without judgment….
                                                            When
he finished, he walked out of his room, 
down the curved wooden stairs and into the streets.
God, he loved the way his clothes
fell soft on his skin.

J.D. Scrimgeour is the author of the poetry collections The Last Miles and Territories, and he won the AWP Award for Nonfiction for Themes For English B: A Professor’s Education In & Out of Class. With musician Philip Swanson he released Ogunquit & Other Works, a CD blending music and poetry. His third poetry collection, Lifting the Turtle (Turning Point), will appear in November 2017.