September

Listen to this, wondering, the smooth casing

on the vowel sound as it voices out.

Except when there is no one, a light

flashes down the side of a cliff, a lost appearance

in a million. It is easy to recognize that the cabinetry

of stiff gods is too much like something seen

under cloud, like a frog’s heavy gallantry

easing into the sentence. When half-full,

our mouths make the unrecognizable shape

we see in darkness, too soon there.

This tells us what we may not know, pastured

in the span of a likeness, of gravel, leads us to

what we find one afternoon,

what we find wading, in the dim waters,

while listening.