Here is another piece from the college years. This one is a favorite of mine. I published it in my poetry book, pulse, in 2005, and it was probably included in one of the issues of The Kanawha Review I edited as well. I remember the night, that seat, that cigarette as if it was all like three months ago. This one came out pretty much like most of them during that period, one sitting, one take. I hope it fills some space well.
“Insomnia and the Concert of the Night”
Window unit air conditioners
hum over the din of crickets chirping
and water running off the mountain in streams.
Our small town, behind unlocked doors and dark windows,
sleeps, oblivious to the sound.
Streetlights provide the lighting;
one, nearing burnout,
adds a dissonant strobe effect.
A solitary firefly lazily
flicks on and off
like a Bic lighter
in the hand of a drunk
during the performance
of a power ballad.
The water in a
circular above ground pool
rotates with the Earth in
the next yard off the hill.
A darkened beach ball
rides on the motion
maintaining an unbroken path
as if to say,
“There are constants,”
one with God and pi.
In the valley
across the River Gauley
the drone of a coal train
adds baritone to the music
proving that I’m not
the only person left,
that the world is, indeed,
still going on.
I light a smoke and
try to absorb it all.
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