The darkest watch. On the playground
across the street, teenagers laugh and weave
through a sycamore’s deep shadows.
One pair clasp hands, the others clamber
atop the jungle gym. In all the yards
the weeping cherries blossom
strings of pearls, unclasped.
A thief’s paradise. Twice tonight
I left the quiet of my house, walked
to the bridge on Indian Creek,
stood listening to the water gossip
in the stones. Farther off, it calmed,
a sheer mirror: moon sheen,
the floating of the woods.
Want provides for us.
Joshua Lavender grew up in rural south Georgia, and many of his poems harp on that place. Most recently, they have appeared in Free State Review, Town Creek Poetry, and Stone, River, Sky, an anthology of Georgia poems from Negative Capability Press. Joshua studied English literature at Georgia College & State University, then matriculated in the M.F.A. program in poetry at the University of Maryland. You can find his poems online at theoldfolk.weebly.com.
Categories: Poetry
Tags: e-zine, ezine, hyperbole, Josua Lavender, longing, melancholy, melancholy hyperbole, new, Night, poem, poet, poetry, poets, submit, writing
Melancholy Hyperbole 