These two poems are fromLynn Levin’s book Fair Creatures of an Hour (Loonfeather Press, 2009).
Sunnies
They mouthed the surface of the creek
for nymphs tasting
their temporary life
or striders sculling the tension
that was neither water nor air
but border, merely.
The way a dream nibbles at awareness,
the sunnies dared the surface.
From the footbridge I saw them
school in the little depth
below the watercolor that was me
afloat on the liquid dogwood and the liquid sky.
I had it all then, all three worlds in one glance.
Then I botched it
flinched or blinked,
and made the sunnies arrow off
as if shot by archers at invisible
foes or Love
intent on missing his mark.
I, too, vanished from the flatness
with the dogwood and the sky,
and all that remained was clarity, terrible clarity.
“Sunnies” appears in Fair Creatures of an Hour by Lynn Levin (Loonfeather Press, 2009).
Freefall
Parachuting’s the last thing I’d think of
doing for fun,
but to Ron and Sara the danger
was sublime. They were skydivers, no strangers
to the wild plunge. Solo for years they dove
until they met and quickly fell in love
over the lonely earth whose losses and angers
appeared small to them. Momentary hangers
in the air, they danced and knew just when to move
apart. Until in a lateral spin one veered
too close. Their bodies caught and strings entwined.
Both canopies collapsed. Was it Sara
or Ron? Who wasn’t careful, who steered
wrong? “No blame,” said friends, “should be assigned.
In love and jumping you always flirt with error.”
“Freefall” appears in Fair Creatures of an Hour by Lynn Levin (Loonfeather Press, 2009).