Issue #20 (2011) PDF - myweb - Long Island University

Jean Verthein
CONTINUE
Eve disappears
beyond the sawed off elm,
which canopied
my drive at its height,
and yet still moons over this
longtime calm realm.
And flies the night white
on snow-whisker pines,
kindling an alpenglow.
Now by these brass andirons, where
last coals glow, I weary
from my qualms. Out here dawn
leery will unroll the horizon,
bursting Psalms, while con-
flict leaves peace in this lounge, as I yearn
to flee beyond these wilds,
sown from homing. Why from
this airy lair, do I adjourn
Nightfall is to the whippoor
will whippoorwill,
as day rise is the heron
that stands still.
On a lawn strewn with wild violets,
dawns later I awaken
held by moss. In the river‘s
shallows, the white egrets
swoop, glance, poise, lance
waves and arch across.
Their high I see from our ground
foam. Its green-red muffs
strum me like a mandolin
in spring with lupine
from loam.
Before I lunge,
I am flung from the trampoline
above the cardinal flowers, birch, silo,
prairie grass, reeds, willow
by Wild Cat Beach.
Down over Koshkonong.
I search high, low,
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