Monday, March 7, 2011

Erika Meitner: Untitled [and the moon once it stopped was sleeping]

It was good to hibernate and have some facebook/twitter/blog time off, but I'm glad to be back so I can catch you up on all the great books, music, and miscellanea I've been immersed in.
This poem by Erika Meitner showed up in my inbox back in January as part of the excellent (and free!) Poem-A-Day email subscription. There are certain poems that are so unexpected and lovely, I find myself holding my breath while I read them. There are poems that have such interesting movement and pacing, I accidentally mouth the words as I go along so I can feel the sound of the poem on my tongue. I haven't been able to delete this one from my inbox yet, so I decided I'd better share it here.


Untitled [and the moon once it stopped was sleeping]
by Erika Meitner

and the moon         once it stopped         was sleeping

in the cold blue light          and the moon          while the wind snapped

vinyl siding apart          slipped around corners          whipped the neighbors'

carefully patterned bunchgrass          our snow-filled vegetable boxes

the house unjoining              the moon       our yard strips          covered with

hollow shells          of hard remnants               ice      and my son's breath

contiguous               static          a shard of green light          on the monitor

wavers with coughs                     the Baptist church                     in Catawba

the only place lit up          down the mountain          past midnight, someone

waving their hands             at something          so quiet              you can hear

the wind tear          at the houses          you can hear          the neighbor

coming home          though he's .18 acres          away          it's too late

for that feeling          (possibility)          the night       always   held

the wind                   is at it                    again            cracking

paint            on the walls              one day          it will            unroot us

one day        the wind        will tally        our losses

but        not yet             the moon        not yet

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