Sonnets 2 and 3 (from The Songs Of The Erinnyes, Sonnets, Odes, and Elegies by Jay Noya, Brigantium Press)

Sonnet 2


It’s a peculiar invention that alters what passes beyond it
That turns all it catches into an obligation and a puzzle
It’s to be a message framed by a plain rectangular space
The window is a space and an enigma and a word
A window it’s a book replete with words and sounds and pictures
I’m to be the watchman and the guard and the judge
Standing at the slit in the wall counting and humming
And waiting the night through and quivering with it
And later it’s to be the sun’s turn to scorch it all
With a remoteness and disdain that only a god can dream up
And issue as law and remonstrance to all
That belongs in a garden of flowers and water of days and nights
It’s to be through the watchman’s eyes that I peer at the world
One day the watchman’s eyes must bring me the end
As well as the concluding extravagance of the light I’ve watched



Sonnet 3

And waited on hour by hour and counted its layers and petals
There’ll be someone else standing at the slit in the wall
Counting and humming and judging the air and its darkness
There’ll be a watchman hiding in the dark watching and waiting
On the sea and listening to its mutterings and warnings and threats
There’ll be a watchman worrying about a breach in the wall
It’s the sea that’ll cause the walls to crumble and the light to go
The light goes as the light goes it goes because it must
It’s the absence of eyes that surprises the dark
And the dreaming god and his garden creatures and trees
And hedges and flowers and singing water
It’s the absence of eyes and ears that buries the world in sleep
And causes it to fail and to destroy the watchman’s world
It’s next to nothing now it’s mostly delirium and whisperings


© J. Noya, 2006