as the sky fragments by Jonathan Yungkans

“In as the sky fragments, Jonathan Yungkans composes brief, luminous meditations on grief, illness, memory, and the quiet hauntings of domestic life. Each poem, anchored by a monoku quoted as an evocative epigraph, becomes a window into something fragile and flickering—a graham cracker spread with frosting in the wake of death, a daughter returning to desert heat, a bookshelf groaning under the weight of too many names. Yungkans pares language to the bone, offering not closure, but clarity—the kind that slips in sideways, like a skunk beneath the house or a gust that knocks a word loose mid-sentence. These poems don’t shout. They settle. They hum. They stay with you like the scent of rain on scorched earth or something almost remembered.”

— José Enrique Medina, Author of Haunt Me, Winner of the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize

About the Author:

Jonathan Yungkans continues to type at odd hours of the night while owls hoot and still another skunk meanders beneath his house’s foundation. His daytime hours are spent as an in-home care provider and boarding-house manager, fueled by coffee. His poems have appeared in Book of Matches, Macqueen's Quinterly, NOON: journal of the short poem, Sonic Boom, Synkroniciti, and other publications. He has also written three poetry chapbooks; the latest, The Ravens Will Arrive Later, is slated for release in 2026 by Gnashing Teeth Publishing.