Dinah at Watch


Already the night.
Already the bugs
face up in the bowls.

A wind that only fire
could have made is cleaving
at the tree line. We mean

to remember what we're failing
to watch and see: Someone
laughs. Someone says I'm sorry

Mama and swallows.
Someone finds me
in the dark of where I shouldn't be,

but doesn't notice. Notice me.
Notice the meat has gone
plum black. Notice the dumb

crack of the ax against the thing
you're afraid might break.
And the mud.

The cussing wind.
The light already. Already
the looking away.


- Mary Beth Ferda (from Blue Mesa Review Online)

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