Breath & Shadow
Summer 2014 - Vol. 11, Issue 3
"4 AM" and "Even More"
written by
B. Z. Niditch
"4 AM"
French bread
resembling a
quarter moon
murdered
on the granite table
an hour ago
by the tentative night
The artist
drawn to exhaustion
of a lost landscape
in solitude
clothed
by sleeplessness.
"EVEN MORE"
In the drowsy dawn
our Muse
pleads for sleep
a time to imagine,
for an extra moment
to dream,
any explanation
on watch for
layers of questions
over the couch,
a fast-moving answer
even on your knee
to speak of a first love,
reminders to wish
the birthday candle
will not be smoked
quicker than words
call up the future,
with applause for
an upstaged return
of a music recital
added to the program,
an extra day
of vacation,
more light
for the bonfire,
a full moon
over a passion play,
asking a higher score
for any ball game,
even more chances
to remember
the living.
B.Z. Niditch is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and teacher. His work is widely published in journals and magazines throughout the world, including: Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art, The Literary Review, Denver Quarterly, Hawaii Review, Le Guepard (France), Kadmos (France), Prism International, Jejune (Czech Republic), Leopold Bloom (Budapest), Antioch Review, and Prairie Schooner, among others. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Breath & Shadow
Summer 2014 - Vol. 11, Issue 3