Jonathan B. Aibel

Forsythia Pavilion

My father wanted to cut
the overgrown all wild.
I begged. A boy could find

under the arches a green
in hot summer perfect
for a covert club of one,

one who needed to see
without being seen, fingerleaf
stroking downy arms

to discover the sudden
wilderness growing
in the forest of his body.

Back to Issue XV…

Jonathan B. Aibel, a recovering software engineer, lives in Concord, MA, traditional homelands of the Nipmuc. His poems have been published in Barrelhouse, Chautauqua, Pangyrus, Lily Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, and elsewhere. Jonathan’s chapbook Echoes of Uruk was a semi-finalist for the Tupelo Press 2024 Snowbound Prize. His collection Soundtrack of Departing Clouds is forthcoming from Lily Poetry Review Press in September 2026.