The Street of Decrees

by Brock Eldon

The Street of Decrees
by Brock Eldon
 
I dreamed of a street in snow
dressed in decrees,
pages nailed to doors,
red ink bleeding through drifts.

The wind cracked each notice
like a sermon inverted,
the words biting my tongue
with the taste of iron.

I turned away before the square,
for the city was already a ledger,
and the people’s breath
already filed and gone.

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Brock Eldon earned his B.A. in English Literature from Western University and his M.A. from Queen’s University in Canada. He has taught English Language and Literature across Asia, including in South Korea, China, and Vietnam, where he currently resides in Hanoi. In addition to his teaching career, he is a freelance editor and his work has appeared internationally, in publications including Salmagundi, The Metropolitan Review, and Bad Clown Books. He is the author of Null Point and The Commonplace Book on Substack.

Franklin Brownell, “Street Scene.” c. 1905