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Saturday, July 20, 2013

LEANING TOWARD THE LIGHT


(c)1998, 2013 Dean Metcalf

Look how far:

thermonuclear orange light leaps clear
of the sun, scoots 9 minutes
across the universe
to bounce now off Saturday’s
last clouds, fracture
into soft golds and greys, filter
past sparse October leaves
         across Front Street,
tilt through a vertical slit
in the window blinds, skip
a cool glance off a varnished
pool table rail, slide
these last few feet
into my retinas
like a softly-tapped
bank shot: 2 ball,
         side pocket.

The planet has turned today’s
final corner. As the last light leaves,
I notice for the first time
tension in the small of my back:

I have been tilting ever
         farther forward,
following the fleeing color
like some vertebrate houseflower
in a room with one window,
lamenting the leaving
of that which makes me green,

leaning toward the light.

Dean Metcalf

2 comments:

  1. I LOVE THIS!!!!!! Oh, thank you so much for sharing. I have been so busy and without time to read anything. This just brought joy to my heart. Missed reading your words.
    Cynthia Reifler Flores
    (Hey, I didn't know how to "publish" my comment)

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  2. Well, I got it, and that's the main thing. I guess I use poetry for balance. I write about so much murder and grief, sometimes I gotta do... poetry. Of course, some of my poems ain't so jolly either. But I do love this poem; have since it first came out of me in that brew pub on Front street in Santa Cruz...

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