Aberration in Sunlight, A Sonnet
after Hopper's 'Excursion into Philosophy'
she didn't want to, she said and turned away from him
to face the gray wall made gray-yellow by sunlight,
he sat there, and she felt his silence flood the room,
her naked bottom and legs warm with the static of his clothes
still on, the book opened faced down against the mattress,
him so saddened his forehead furrowed, his eyes dismayed
of not being able to satisfy her, him, and the light showed
no sign of relenting, exaggerating everything with its ardor,
love lost, love gained, she sleeps now, and he feels it behind
him, how her chest rises and falls, rhythmic like the wind
outside combing the tall reeds in the field across the way,
no matter how many times he thinks of a solution, the light
mocks him, his hands on his laps, like desperate birds, wingless,
earthbound, nothing the book contains will save them.
to face the gray wall made gray-yellow by sunlight,
he sat there, and she felt his silence flood the room,
her naked bottom and legs warm with the static of his clothes
still on, the book opened faced down against the mattress,
him so saddened his forehead furrowed, his eyes dismayed
of not being able to satisfy her, him, and the light showed
no sign of relenting, exaggerating everything with its ardor,
love lost, love gained, she sleeps now, and he feels it behind
him, how her chest rises and falls, rhythmic like the wind
outside combing the tall reeds in the field across the way,
no matter how many times he thinks of a solution, the light
mocks him, his hands on his laps, like desperate birds, wingless,
earthbound, nothing the book contains will save them.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The