This day re-gifts
my own small-minded irritabilities,
tickles with a vast multitude of pinpricks,
like an unbecoming, sticky, hair shirt
of me, threatening to turn
into a belly laugh.

Joseph Hardy is one of a handful of writers that live in Nashville, Tennessee, that does not play a musical instrument; although a friend once asked him to bring his harmonica on a camping trip so they could throw it in the fire. His wife says he cannot leave a room without finding out something about everyone in it, and telling her their stories later. His work has been published in: Gyroscope Review, Inlandia, Penultimate Peanut, Structo, and the tiny journal among others. He is the author of a book of poetry published in August 2020, The Only Light Coming In.