Walk into the room of night sky and sit
. . . . . . .in the chair facing
. . . . . . . . . . . . . the jagged trees until Orion rises,
fast as the world’s spin in a moonless sky, so fast
. . . . . . .you can’t walk across the floor
. . . . . . . . . . . . . to the opposite wall
before the sky has changed
. . . . . . . . . . . . . and the hunter and his dog
. . . . . . .are far past zenith guiding you to a place
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . you know well,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . where everything you dread
. . . . . . .happens, their passage
through the air like a clang
. . . . . . . . . . . . . jarring you out of sleep,
. . . . . . .not needing any word from you as you stand
and walk out of the room,
. . . . . . .already forgetting
the stars in their fixed courses,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the certainty they warn.
Stephen Black was born in western Tennessee and currently teaches at Georgia Southern University. His poems, essays, and short stories have appeared, or are forthcoming, in the anthology The Cadence of Hooves: A Celebration of Horses as well as Number One, The Magazine, Eagle Eye, and The Mindfulness Bell.
