Somewhere amongst star shards &
volcanic outcroppings I couldn’t
see against a 5:00 am November
sky the fm evaporated
it was east of Jordan Valley it
didn’t happen all at once the
signal dispersed across
depths & distances & ghostly
sagebrush in the headlights almost
100 miles from daybreak
a diner’s unlit windows
dark in the darkness
fractured constellations broken yellow
line invisible
cattle moving across the rangeland
a sodium light a semi truck’s
enormous exhalation
a broken yellow
line the star shards south a-
bove California a
stone pinging the windshield a
star fragment chip the
distance between constellations
I could hold that in my hands
Jack Hayes
© 2010
[To see other poems in this sequence, please click on the "UP Poems" label]
Another poignant reflection on movement and the passage of time. Love the last lines!
ReplyDelete(Kat, hilarious "dismati" definition!)
Also, like when you are on a train watching the landscape go by, images come in self-contained little packages, strung out along the way.
ReplyDeleteHi Kat, Audrey & Alan
ReplyDeleteKat: Thanks! Of course, the narrator in all these poems is in a car (headlights, windshield, fm radio, etc) but the Union Pacific trains make an appearance in several. & "Union Pacific" is kind of a "keyword." Love "dismati," btw!
Audrey: Thanks! & extra special thanks for posting this on FB!
Alan: Many thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
distance between constellations
ReplyDeleteI could hold that in my hands
I love that - and the idea of star fragments and small stones on the same scale. Also loved the otherworldliness in general - as in the opening lines.
Hi HKatz: Thanks for that--it's interesting that both you & Audrey pointed to the ending, because I had misgivings about that. Eberle also liked the ending. I guess it must be ok! Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteI like the broken, fragmented vastness of this one, John. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHi Willow: Thanks! So glad you liked it.
ReplyDelete