Jesse Glass

Evening into Night

Crows duel for leathery
droppings in the street;
gutter water freezes.

A neighbor’s Handel
revolves above the roof tiles,
thin & fine to the ear
as a hummingbird’s skeleton
is to the eye.

I dry my single cup and hang it on a nail.

The poultice moon draws
fever from the sky
as clocks slow
into midnight
and furnaces throb on
in rock-walled cellars.

I shut the happy Book of Lies, yawn.
Hear the late December winds
punish the river...

Sleep with my hat on
hands a-pockets:

(My masterwork
a hobo nickel
warms to my rubbing.)

The Great Ladder, once

strong enough

strong enough

strong enough

strong enough

strong enough

strong enough

strong enough

for marble angels’ hands & feet

is now a scattering of feathers
on the ice.

Horses in the
snow the
horses their pranc-
                ing
legs

the cold
sift

shift—
ing

breath—
ing

in a motion

Horses
in w,h,i,t,e
w,e,a,t,h,e,r
dipping long noses

lift
hooves
high

in w,h,i,t,e w,e,a,t,h,e,r (de-
                licate
storm)

—of hooves—

turn turn p,r,a,n,c,e above
stubble
fields

Horses
                in the cold       breath-
ing          pranc-
ing

legs

& horses
turn
in white-
ness

(storm
of evening)

lift
hooves
high

dipping their del-
icate del-
icate
heads                breathing

the snow
plumes of
the blue white
weather
they're breathing

cold & white &
turning
(forever-

ing)

—hooves—
—in a motion—

a breath now
a blue breath now

a plume of breath now

gift of
the giver
(horses

forever-
-ing)

lift-

hooves

high

above

the
white
stubble
fields




Jesse Glass recently participated in an online celebration of the work of Paul Celan available via Chax Press, on YouTube, and featuring some of the finest translators of this important poet’s work. Recent poetry featured in Golden Handcuffs Review. Enoch, and New Poems will be published soon by The Knives Forks and Spoons Press.
 
 
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