Green and Shadow

by Nancy Burke
  

The thickest stems cast
Thicker shadows, throw down the
Gray, spreading halos
Of obscurity, unfurl the soft, deep
Silhouettes of absence and
String together, on a single cord, 
The unlit cusps of twenty moons.

The thickest shadows 
Draw the thick stems upward,
Dangle them like fat pearl strands
Across the graceful throats of
Seven gray-white Aprils, and
Glint them in the blades
Of twenty blue-white stars.

The stems and shadows.
The garden; lovers straining,
Symmetrically, to kiss; the
Goblet, whose thick stem makes and
Sunders them, whose 
Bowl overflows with shadows,
Soil, berries, silence, thorns.


© 2008 by Nancy Burke. All rights reserved.

Nancy Burke's work has appeared in Euphony and American Poetry Journal, and was recently featured in After Hours. She has won various prizes, including a Gradiva award, an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship, an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award, an EEW award, an International Merit Award from the Atlanta Review, and a Fish prize.