by trogers5 on March 27, 2022

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Poetry

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Fiona Clarke ’23

 

At Goodwill, a good find: 

A second, or third, or fourth-hand lamp. 

(“Where are you going to put that?” 

 “I don’t know, but I’ll find a place.”) 

And so it was: 

An old light in a new shape, 

A new light in an old place. 

 

So it was, was it not?  

I once let out a cry, and asked that I be put under the ether, 

Not wanting you to pay for it— 

(“Pay for what?” 

“I don’t know.”) 

But I woke up, and I wised up, and I walked side by side with you, 

’Til we stood on a new crack in the old road. 

You put a quarter in the parking meter, 

And said: “This will only take a minute,” 

But we take no time; it falls through our fingers 

And taps our shoulders as it passes us by. 

 

A good find, this new lamp, 

And where am I going to put this light? 

It will make its place for itself, 

This light that sinks and always rises, 

With weight that grounds and still surprises, 

Pours like wine upon me, and colors those empty spaces, 

Quenches a thirst and reveals a greater hunger, 

A light besides which other lights resemble bruises, 

and, shining on those wounds, binds them up. 

I once let out a cry: “Where am I going to put this lamp?” 

But this crazed corkscrew light that is within me and about me 

has made its place for itself.