Martha Silano

I was trying to weigh darkness

I was trying to weigh darkness how much does darkness weigh
why is my daughter afraid of the dark why was I in my 30s
and 40s afraid of the dark

half of every day in darkness most of the cosmos most
of a forest most of the ocean the corridors
that lead to more corridors

the lover and the corpse what isn’t green or yellow or red
what isn’t a rainbow a cloud or the moon
when it’s reflecting sunlight

what isn’t the blue blue above is ominous unknown
our eyes unable our pupils the ink from squid
the eggs from a sturgeon Australia’s rarest

opals the bear and the panther the ink in the pen on the page
a phone when it’s not in use the little cocktail dress
the evening gown the tuxedo

a way to be fancy a way to be goth crows and ravens
a window where no one’s home charred trees
brushfire’s aftermath

Author: Martha Silano

Martha Silano‘s most recent collection is Gravity Assist (Saturnalia Books, 2019). She is also co-author of The Daily Poet: Day-by-Day Prompts for Your Writing Practice (Two Sylvias Press, 2013). Martha’s work is forthcoming or has recently appeared in Cincinnati Review, Cimarron Review, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. She teaches at Bellevue College and Seattle’s Hugo House.

Plume: Issue #115 March 2021