folding the decade over on itself
acting normal and almost
succeeding passing invisible
through time and times unnaming
each moment as it collapses
with a whisper like the first
taste of sugar incurable childhood
never looking forward never
looking back no lack
of sunlight morning the only
day spring the only season
eyes in everything in bark
in candles in voices and voices
in everything in windows
in water in love in gravel
in blue stars haunting inner
ears in the sideboard in
the run-out groove but even
in this accident which passes
for choice the autumn
spreads its nightfall over
the names of every sorrow
and every regret trapped
in this endless decade
Robert van Vliet is a poet, designer, and teacher who lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His poems have appeared in The Sixth Chamber Review, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, The Eunoia Review, Cool Rock Repository, Wine Cellar Press, Otoliths, and elsewhere. His website is https://www.letterspace.org/ and he eavesdrops on Twitter https://twitter.com/_robertvanvliet