In lush counties the ripening sky\u2019s a house
for hope; as gather billowed, clouded wings
on the crown of dusk, so night\u2019s vessel brings
its black despair. I\u2019ve seen John Eli house
them both; I\u2019ve seen him clip his wings of grief
where set upon the patient morning\u2019s vein,
his flighted creatures worry \u2018round the flame.
Thereon he flints the torch that lights his grief
by daily footed shore; it beats its wings,
wet lung ebbing at his feet. Burn the pond
wherein she drowned; so goes the madman\u2019s song.
The tired flame in ritual drowns and sings,
on and on, for twenty years; his purpose
hefted, burdenlike \u2013 his love the purer,
mine the less \u2013 forever to endure her,
of his obstinance bereft. Wind and wing;
I know the aviary of his mind,
for what is lost to him was also mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In lush counties the ripening sky\u2019s a housefor hope; as gather billowed, clouded wingson the crown of dusk, so night\u2019s vessel bringsits black despair. I\u2019ve seen John Eli housethem both; I\u2019ve seen him clip his wings of griefwhere set upon the patient morning\u2019s vein,his flighted creatures worry \u2018round the flame.Thereon he flints the torch that … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-11t","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3936,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions\/3936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Kataryna Zharkovna is a poet born in Serbia, grown in Canada, and honed in Siberia. She holds a hard-won English Specialist\u2019s degree from the University of Toronto, and her work can befound or forthcoming in magazines such as Sundial, Neologism, The Astorian, Mindfork and others. When not agonizing over giving form to the formless, shespends time befriending swans and taking care of two puckishly charming children.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n