drafts from Winter Constellations

Over the wind-tossed grasses.

& adhere: a pattern
sometimes forces our eyes closed—

Those grasses silently folding.

But we matter a great deal,
smoke from a dark wick.

*

But always feel:
the snow—the wind that
offers, perhaps, a clue to the equation:
something constant, something

reflected in lake water.

We allow ourselves some small deceptions:

*

There must be a pattern,
the stars so close; we try to hold.

Vivid:

the wind-tossed grasses.
Once, traveling with a woman:

the colors sporadic
& the stars all within reach.

*

But we keep reaching,
we keep reaching.

It’s early, she said. Sleep more.

I woke to early sun
or moonlight.

*

Flowing up
& reflected from you;
through the long night
a rage for some defining order.

If successful, we’ll stay.
The snow, the wind,
the stars are close; we try to hold
together in the long distances
between the fallen snow, the wind.
Until then;

*

Reflected in lake water,
you pointed

& I have always loved the night.

We keep reaching
over the wind-tossed grasses.
Complete, staggered & jagged
a sickness, unchecked, like this
& sunlight.

We don’t matter a bit,
but we kept reaching
all through the long night

until you looked like the night.

*

It’s early, she said, Sleep more.
Grasses silently fold;
the stars sit close; we try to hold.
All this ends us,

standing to our waists
in the wind-tossed grasses
of moonlight.
The stars are close; we try to hold.
Snow continues to fall.

We allow ourselves some small deceptions:
you looked like the night but I could never
close my eyes to the light.

The burning of fire, & then afterward.




Nate Pritts: Other poems have been in/will be in Rattle, TYPO, 5AM, Solo, DIAGRAM & Forklift, Ohio with critical work appearing in New Writing (UK) & Midwest Quarterly; my chapbook, The Happy Seasons, is online in its entirety from Swannigan & Wright. I am the editor & sole shareholder of H_NGM_N, an online journal of poetry, poetics &c. Originally from Syracuse, NY, I live in Natchitoches, LA, where I'm an Assistant Professor at Northwestern State University.


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