Amazing Grace

by Tobi Alfier


She stares at a pink double-decker bus
as she throws her ring over the side rail.
Even the seagulls don’t participate
as she starts over.  As the brackish brown

of sea and ghostly sky meld flawlessly.

In port in Saint John, New Brunswick, the red
is red, yellow is bright yolk breakfast hue,
and green is blinding against the moldy
brick of worn-out buildings and lonely seas.

A solitary piper cries slow hymns
perfect for this sky the shade of absent,
a gray so dense and pale even streetlights
are dimmer than lighted candles in church. 

A new building is dotted with “Sold” signs.
It looks like a burned out and ruined shell,
hidden promises under construction;
but the yellow ladder on the fifth floor
tells her have hope, you are worth looking for,   

and someone is going to look for her.
She will wait. One province over and a
bit inland, a man rises to leave home,
his shadow passes across the window,
the daylight breaking like a late fall tide...


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"Amazing Grace" was first published in The Helix Literary Magazine (Fall 2011)

Tobi Alfier is a multiple Pushcart nominee and multiple Best of the Net nominee. “Slices of Alice & Other Character Studies” was published by Cholla Needles Press. “Symmetry: earth and sky” was just published by Main Street Rag. She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.bluehorsepress.com).