blackbirdan online journal of literature and the artsFall 2009  Vol. 9. No. 2
poetryfictionnonfictiongalleryfeaturesbrowse
DAVID WOJAHN | Ochre

xxii

 

 

 

 

This One Davey Took From The Middle Of The Bedroom
While Johnny And I Were Both Asleep

Polaroid Study of the Author’s Parents, 1964

 Rafted & tangled in their separate sheets,
Their single-bed dreams depression-poor,

Eyelids aflutter, they snore & fidget,
A watch & earrings
                               their sole commingling, the dresser

Jewelboxed & decanted with their smells.
Insensible persistence,
                                      the burning leaves, their pungency.

The world’s a book of shadows. The boy stands
Swaying in their bedroom’s center, equidistant

Between each cloven city, battlements yet untoppled.
The camera spits out its blur. Bakelite

Transistor from a far room: static & box scores, early Beatles,
October sleet.
                       Neutron, proton, electron, our orbits

Linked & isolate. & one to bear this caption
Graying to another century, block letters in a trembling hand.


return to top