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Poetry
by S. Thomas Summers
How
to Sweat
Dance -
at noon, where oak and beech
embroider a meadow's lip.
Slip into a pocket of lavender
or lilac. Let greedy pines horde
their shadows. Close your
eyes to cool imagination.
Slide against a hornet's hum;
listen as cicadas stitch
an aging day with scream.
Dance.
top
To
the Book Seller
I thought of you today as I passed your
shop,
imagined you settled on a stool behind the counter -
your hands spread the wings of a new volume
of old poetry: Whittier or Longfellow. The scent
of crisp paper warms a moment like a coffee
liberating heat - yours a blend of cinnamon,
two splashes of whiskey. Each book: attentive,
in its place - a silent company. Like a faithful
dog, each waits for your attention, for your fingers
to scrape the edge of pages, the stiff line of a lettered
spine. A young lady, her hair still damp - an afternoon's
light rain - cradles Kerouac and Nabokov. Excuse me,
she asks, which do you prefer? That depends, you say.
Will you be pouring red wine or white? Her eyes - green
as spring.
top
Certainly
If you ask, I'll go again - to the barn
where the owl peered through the shadow
it had twisted around the rafters like a wet rope -
the owl that momentarily abandoned interest
in a mouse it clasped, in a faint scrape:
blood against vein. It considered our sweat,
the air we salted - and the painful ease
of our nudity - splinter and grunt. The morning
died with the mouse; we slept through the birth
of an afternoon - but yes, I'll go again.
top
S. Thomas Summers is a teacher
of Writing and Literature at Wayne Hills High School in Wayne,
NJ and an adjunct writing professor at Passaic County Community
College in Wanaque, NJ. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks:
Death Settled Well (Shadows Ink Publications, 2006) and
Rather, It Should Shine (Pudding House Press, 2007). His
poetry has also appeared in 2River View, Rope and Wire, The
Pedestal Magazine, and Literary Bohemian, among other print
and electronic journals. Contact him at www.sthomassummers.webs.com.
He'd love to hear from you.
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