Featured in New Lyre Summer 2023
Radiance
A half-life passes, others come and go,
But no clairvoyant eyes can find the day
When what we’ve shared will finally ebb away.
Our palette lacks the muted indigo,
A shade to quench the incandescent glow—
Our cataclysm’s radiant decay—
And time provides no twilight to allay
The swelter as the burnished memories flow.
Our sin was unoriginal, and yet
There was a bonding no one could explain,
A synthesis of sorrow and a sweet
Combustion only passion could beget,
And if I could embrace it once again
I’d stop my clocks and call the world complete.
Mar de Hoces
Stupendous jade-hued volumes of the sea
That palpitate and crest on such a scale
To make the sailor's resolution quail
And falter; this typhoon is home to me.
The fluctuating surface, and the free
Commotion of the winds, may they avail
The albatross' wings with which I sail
Above the watery tumult heedlessly.
So, shall we guess which destiny I bring,
What consequence my feathered limbs bestow?
If luck exists, do I bear good or ill?
Shall I embrace you with extended wing,
Or hang about your neck and offer woe?
The triple fates who might reply are still.
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