Of Cold & a March Night
by Ralph Monday
The stars are spiraling borders retina-locked
like van Gogh’s kaleidoscope, maddening
swirls lording over dark cypresses
sprouted
from a cold that envelopes me hauling
firewood fueled by a star & overhead
in the ancient vacuum the
cold
filters down like the arctic in a London
tale. Even the calling owls know this
totem, the news that they etch into
each branch with primal claws,
those
glowing spheres caught by a hunter’s
pupils, the long nights they have known,
vast abyss above & below, no true
shelter but what the mind rationalizes.
I would say
come in and warm
your wings by the fire.
__
Ralph Monday is Professor of English at Roane State Community College in Harriman, TN. He is widely published in journals. His latest book is Bergman’s Island & Other Poems (Terror House Press, 2021). You can follow him on Twitter @RalphMonday.