Poetry & Misplaced Verses

The Shadows and The Fire [Poem]

Seamus O'Shaughnessy, Jr.20 Comments

The longest sunset
pours over the world’s edges
like a waterfall.

The horizon tries in vain to wrap its golden-yellow arms around every inch of the globe, dipping its hands in as many oceans and running its hands along the sides of as many mountains as it can reach. Even on this day, the other side of the mountain remains out of reach and the ocean only gives up some of its depths to horizon hands.

The shadows lengthen
under the spectrum sunset
in contradiction.

The shadows pace further from their homes on that day than on any other, their feet borne beyond the safety of their usual haunts, as if taunting the sunset at its inability to destroy the darkness. Even the shortest, the weakest, the brightest of nights is announced by the darkest of shadows. While the ground melts into nothingness, the sky is on fire.

Look up at the fire
as though there is nothing else –
to know you’re alive.

Photo by Scott Szarapka on Unsplash

At DVerse, we have been asked to write a haibun that alludes to the Solstice.

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