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This poem is from the chapbook Dark Flowering Fields by Thomas Patterson (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://finishinglinepress.com/product/dark-flowering-fields-by-thomas-patterson/
Thomas Patterson’s work has appeared in seventy-five journals and magazines, including New Orleans Review, The South Carolina Review, The Antioch Review, Connecticut River Review, and Confrontation, among many others. His recent work appears in Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine, National Edition, 2024 (prize finalist poem), and he has a prize winning poem in the Elizabeth Royal Patton Poetry competition, from Clare Songbirds Publishing House (2025); Two previous poetry chapbooks have been published by Finishing Line Press: Juniata County and Village of Doomed Women. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Thomas is a graduate of Northeastern University (MA in English Literature) and Rhode Island College (Med in Counseling Psychology) and is retired from his positions as School Adjustment Counselor in the Fall River School Department and as Instructor in English at Bristol Community College, in Fall River, Massachusetts. He lives in Westport, Massachusetts.
The Paddock Review 