Noumenon

By

The bed was thus, the curtains were therefore.
The moon floated past the window frame
and appeared to be. Fans roared as softly as.
A blue light becoming, or a wind
unlike anything outside.
Or a memory of, but less than.
In other words, a fine dust settling on the dust ruffle.
Released from memory. Released into remembering.
Motor coach and reservoir, children and fools.
The pasture being itself, in other words, midnight, perfume.
Schopenhauer breathing into a paper bag.
Sequins, rutabaga, emerald hills.
Burj Khalifa and a feeling
that in a moment anything could.
That the clouds might.
4:00 p.m. Al Ain: what to say?
Or your voice, the risk of. And rebar.
Then traffic, rushing as if it could stop.
Sure it could.
The noise, the ticking. Noise,
noise, boom. You letting go
was unlike. You leaving
was nearly like.

 


Cindy King

Cindy King is the author of a book-length poetry collection, Zoonotic (Tinderbox Editions, 2022), and two poetry chapbooks, Easy Street (dancing girl press, 2021) and Lesser Birds of Paradise (Southeastern Louisiana University Press, 2022). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Sun, New England Review, The Threepenny Review, North American Review, Denver Quarterly, Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. You can hear her poems in places like The Slowdown http://www.slowdownshow.org and The Cortland Review cortlandreview.org. Cindy was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up swimming in the shadows of the hyperboloid cooling towers on the shores of Lake Erie. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Utah Tech University and faculty editor of The Southern Quill and Route 7 Review. She also enjoys serving as editorial assistant for Seneca Review.