John Riley

Night Bells

The chimes of the bells have ended and the night has thickened and all around the limbs of the
magnolia are bouncing. The wind continues to pick up until the world stands still and braces against an
assault. But the world is wrong. The world is so often wrong. We have made our own circle, me and
the trees and their dancing leaves.  All the trees are smiling and down the street windows are rising and
new faces fill the expanse and we all sing the same song and even the bells lift their weary tongues and
clap new chimes.

John Riley is a former teacher. He has published poetry and fiction in Smokelong Quarterly, Eclectica, and dozens of other journals and anthologies online and in print. EXOT Books will publish a volume of 100 of his 100-word prose poems in the fall of 2022. He has published over forty books of nonfiction for young readers.