The Heat Shudders On

then off again one late-November night—a bump of sorts from the oil-burning furnace
in the basement; a visit from our erratic ghost; something we can almost feel but which
can be seen only by our incautious cat—she, unpredictable as the snow that now blows
against our lake-weary window panes. Two steely wool blankets stored away. Safe in
that cedar chest you had asked me countless times to get rid of. The cat, skulking around alone
down in that draughty old cellar, or maybe, somehow, not alone down there at all.

Arthur McMaster's poems have appeared in such distinguished journals as North American Review, Southwest Review, Poetry East, Poet Lore, Rattle, and Rhino, with one Pushcart Prize nomination. He is the winner of the 2017 Poetry of South Carolina’s DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Society Prize. His most recent volume of poetry is The Whole Picture Show, published (Summer 2021) by Revival Press. He also has work in the 2018 anthology of South Carolina poets, Archive. A retired Converse College English professor, he teaches in the Continuing Education Department at Furman University.