The Eleventh Sky

Please enjoy this book of poetry and art from Patrick J. Leach. A sample is presented here:

Eleventh Sky
Sunburned
Skin red and peeling
A boy just before he turns into a man
Prayers by the river right before it winds around
Anticipating the drop over Niagara
Growing up there were good and bad times
Layers upon layers mixing with me trying to make sense of my life
So much was lived under so many different skies
That night near dusk the skunk sprayed Charlie and me when we laughed at it thinking we were too far away
My mother sending me to the river with towels, tomato juice and fresh clothes telling me not to come home until I washed the stink away

Looking up at the stars that seemed to be laughing at us knowing we had once again erred in our ways
Walking home feeling cold and wet, relieved the smell had mostly gone away
Wary of that skunk as we passed through the darkness on the way
Looking back on those days lived under the eleventh sky so close to graduating high school
Drinking beer and whiskey, smoking cigarettes and seeking out women my age for friendship and sex
Lying under the red hot sun to get a tan and burning once every spring
Not knowing time speeds up as age catches a man when his boyhood goes away
Missing those times standing on the edge of the Horseshoe Falls watching the water pound away
And swimming in the river a few miles upstream