Sonnet 4, The Distances, Second Series (from The Songs Of The Erinnyes, Sonnets, Odes, and Elegies by Jay Noya, Brigantium Press)

Sonnet 4


From the mourning black of a late summer day to the grey autumn afternoon
Is but a matter of languorous telephone conversations and delays
And waiting at a downtown Manhattan intersection for a promise
Because you’re certain the beach is empty and the tourists are gone
And airplanes circle the island and vanish in the cloudy distance
And the night turns cold and warns of the despondency of winter months
And books that were thrilling in the morning are pathetic in the evening
And one frets and something bitter tricks and overwhelms the tongue
And anguish is the purple flower of early evening intimacies
And one watches the tunnel entrance from the subway platform
And one whispers what can’t be whispered and confided elsewhere
And it’s as if the world is to end tomorrow before the dawn arrives
Because the night before September’s ocher light stabbed my heart




©J.Noya 2009