A U G U S T 1 9 9 7
HISTORY
by John SkoylesHear John Skoyles read this poem (in RealAudio):
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If we stare too far ahead
we trip over the feeblest root.
If we look back
we become shadows,
people who pick up accents
from a long stay in a strong country.
If we take too much care,
fearful of the god
whose footfalls we hear approaching,
we go nowhere,
caught in the song
of our age,
a flickering storm of ash
from the raked leaves.
In that flurry
a black butterfly
bats the air
as it dips through the cinders.
Which one's on fire?
Which has a home in this world?
John Skoyles teaches poetry writing at Emerson College, in Boston. A new book of his poems, Definition of the Soul, will be published next year.
Copyright © 1997 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; August 1997; History; Volume 280, No. 2; page 56.
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