some night - luis cabalquinto Some Night
From "Moon Over Magarao: New & Selected Poems"
by Luis Cabalquinto

Some night when you're out there in an open field,
looking intently at the black velvet sky thickly
beaded with stars, you might also feel what I've felt

on such a night. You might feel the heavy weight
of your thoughts drop and vanish into the grass
and all that really mattered would be the full volume

of your body displacing the same volume of air;
then taking some of it back into an open mouth
with each long slow intake, holding breath a minute

then letting go, sensing the flushing power of the act.
A cleanliness of being would pulse out into the universe.
Unseen, someone would be singing from afar --

a young woman's voice, riding thin and fragile
on the southeast gust that would brush past your ear like fur;
and some deep part of you would be yearning for her

to come and share this pain, the stinging ache of your joy.  ¶ 6/11/2004 05:35:00 PM