for Adeline Carter Van Looy

The sun has not set;
the great blue bulb sky
and its frosted peaks this earthen mother ball
has simply turned
beneath this constant light
and sinking into her own
oh, yes very own shadow
wrapped herself in her very own night.

The sun has not set;
the still dusky last breath
just a few degrees from your last breath
and the still prone form
that rises from beneath
the breast that cannot hold
this much come, this much gone
ever that violent violet horizon
a ride I have made
so recent and often
where you have always been
and now will never be again
and will always be.

The sun has not set;
ah, such a short turn away
across the hills and the highlands
over two great lakes and the flatlands
why do we never stay?
why do we always wander?
where is there really to go?
only a little less than a time zone away
where the sun has never set
and the dusty dusk violent violet
spread out on the city roofs
the last fevered blush
reflected behind as well
bleeding into its own light
where the sun has never set.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.