Sally Read
August, Vermillion
All night my skin sings
with the build-up of heat, static:
lightning presses hotly to the glass
for ten blanched seconds at a time.
I try to picture you, four thousand miles away,
chilled fingers fumbling with keys,
the overloud sound of whiskey
poured in an empty room.
But you’re lost to the flinty stream
of gutters overflowing,
the gunmetal smell in my hair,
a surge of voltage to the stereo downstairs:
Bach’s cello striking up
for no one through the rain,
like a soldier pointed north
and commanded to march on.
poetrymagazines' note: August, Vermillion by Sally Read is published in her first collection 'The Point of Splitting' under the title Evening, Clay County. Furher information is available from Bloodaxe Books here
Page(s) 36
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