Sonnet 154, The Distances, Second Series (from The Songs Of The Erinnyes, Sonnets, Odes, and Elegies by Jay Noya, Brigantium Press)

Sonnet 154


The ecumenical shape and intent of love
As it flowers and finds its way around here nightly
And as my thumping heart keeps pace with the shifts and threats
And accepts the rewards and admiration just as it accepts the flesh
It craves and clings to and weeps over and buries
Because it does bury what it can’t do and live without
And the heavens darken and time quits its quivering
And water solidifies and obliterates all light in its chambers
And fissures and shadows are no more than threads of ice
And the sun is a black orb that goes unseen and unnoticed
And in the churchyard the burial plots are below water
And the nights aren’t nights and the days aren’t days
And the only sound in the air comes from creaking trees
Stretching heavenward and these are the burial trees
That in burying the dead absolve them and provide refuge
And keep them from the sovereign darkness of the day of reckoning


© J.Noya 2010