6.07 / London Calling

903 Eyre Square

Ronnie Stephens

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An aged man in new tweed
takes the floor.

Brass band sets the stage
with a slow serenade.

Saxophone and trumpet
weave tapestries across the room.

His shuffle is careful
but fluid, deliberate steps

carry him across faded wood slats
with a young woman in costume. Tonight
she is a flapper. Another waits her turn.

He has dipped his wife.
He has dipped tourists.

He has dipped the room, like tea biscuits at noon,
soft for one more song.

Ronnie K. Stephens is former co-slammaster of Ozark Poetry Slam and a board member of Ozark Poets and Writers Collective. He currently teaches high school English in Tulsa. His poems have appeared in Naugatuck River Review, The Licking River Review, Weave Magazine, Das