Before the Sky Darkens

"the clown" by Israel Rubenstein


Before the Sky Darkens


Sunset's incipient storms,
the tableaus of melancholy--
maybe these are the Saturday night events
to take your best girl to.
At least then there might be moments
of vanishing beauty before the sky darkens,
and the expectation of happiness
would hardly exist and therefore
might be possible. More and more you learn
to live with the unacceptable.
You sense the ever-hidden God
retreating even farther,
terrified or embarrassed.
You might as well be a clown,
big silly clothes, no evidence of desire.
That's how you feel, say, on a Tuesday.
Then out of the daily wreckage
comes an invitation with your name on it,
or more likely that best girl of yours
offers you once again a small local kindness.
You open your windows to good air blowing in
from who knows where, which you gulp
and deeply inhale as if
you have a death sentence. You have.
All your life, it seems,
you've been appealing it.
Night sweats and useless stratagem reprieves.


Stephen Dunn

Posted over on Online News Hour