There, in the distance,
rushing inexorably onward,
a gray-clad forward guard
charges across the plains.
Skin tingles with a rumbled warning,
a timpani crescendo
crashing without and within.
An electric tension perfumes the air,
an uncompromising will-o’-the wisp
playing hide and seek amongst the clouds,
calling hearts against their will.
And as the first drops
raise dusty whispers,
there is no retreat,
no option other
than to wait
for the inevitable collision
to bring new life
or ravage this one.
~ Julie Sellers
Julie Sellers: An Associate Professor of Spanish at Benedictine College, Julie Sellers has twice been the overall prose winner of the Kansas Voices Contest. She has published in Kansas Time + Place, The Write Launch, Kanhistique, and New Works Review. Her third academic book, The Modern Bachateros, was published in 2017 (McFarland).
June Editor Bio: Ramona Vreeland McCallum is the author of a collection of poetry entitled Still Life with Dirty Dishes (Woodley Press, 2013). She earned her MFA from UMKC in 2017 and her Master of Arts in Teaching from KSU in 2018. She lives in Garden City, Kansas where she teaches 5th grade English Language Arts and co-parents six children with her husband, Brian McCallum. For June’s poems, Ramona selected work whose avian and weather imagery convey metaphoric and dichotomous themes of restlessness & peace, anxiety & security, and which communicate the power of presence when reflecting on the past and looking toward the future.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 
Very well done Julie!