Poetry by Jan Mordenski
cannot help himself.
Sometimes, with the next day
spread out before him like an azure flag,
and the golden glances of his brother—
the radiant rival on whom he so depends—
blazing across a bright tomorrow,
he cannot merely fade on cue
into his designated background
without comment, without query,
without—momentarily—
facing the morning throng
with a pale yet perceptible smile.
No, sometimes, with all the timidity,
all the temerity of a second son,
he feels he must, if only briefly,
hold his unsolid ground in that unfolding sky,
just to remind us how precious, how frail,
how necessary, is the belief in things unseen,
in persons unnoticed, in sentiments so deep,
so true yet unvoiced in those unabated moments
that are there, and then gone,
and then—hopefully—remembered
like the sighting of a summer’s moon
lingering in the morning sky.
Jan Mordenski, a trained folklorist and writing teacher, is from Detroit. Her poems have regularly appeared in print in Canada, Ireland, England, Australia, and the United States. Her poem “Crochet” was selected for the American Life in Poetry series. More of her poetry appears on Ravens Perch, and Quadra/Project.
