The Following Shadow
Kathleen Spivack
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest 2017 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention, Margaret Reid, Traditional Verse
The sky like a cake dish curves, has dimension,
contains us in an element like water. Everywhere
invisible currents cut through and feelings prepare
to give way to others. Birds practice ascending declensions
of birdsong: Amo; Amas; Amat. Random clouds
dream and pass over. They leave following shadows
like a sea that appearing implacable hides undertows;
colder depths: the distant bell buoy sound
of someone sobbing. Still the bright day's validated
by dark aftertones: they resonate.
As the thin rice paper shape, the moon,
pale petaled, traces itself on the joyous blue
zenith, a reminder of longing, of nights without you,
fading, faint moth of my love, elliptical at noon.
