Tonight my fingers stiffly stumble across
my keyboard as my mind is repulsed,
as I am frightened of this task, as I am afraid
of the pain of thought, as my spirit fills & trembles
with the mystery in words.
Words that once flashed
in the eyes of the dying,
words that fade into a wet cough,
words brushing past the living
with silken lips as cold as marble,
their frightened gasps merge into darkness.
Ancient images tumble into my mind, I pass the
rough tips of my short fingers across my
damp forehead—very carefully as I
rehearse for my passage to the moon,
knowing all of us will have to make this swim
through skin and blood and memories.
Steve DeFrance is a widely published poet, playwright, and essayist both in America and Great Britain. In England, he won a Reader’s Award in Orbis Magazine for his poem “Hawks.” In the United States, he won the Josh Samuels’ Annual Poetry Competition (2003) for his poem “The Man Who Loved Mermaids.” His play The Killer had it’s world premiere at the Garage Theatre in Long Beach, California (Sept-October 2006). He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Chapman University for his writing.