Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "desire/and its difficulty"

The smoke from the Yosemite fire fills Squaw Valley late at night then the daily winds blow it somewhere else and by late afternoon the sky is clear again. The fire is burning parts of Yosemite that have no recorded fire history.

This morning Rebel Girl baked two loaves of bread, as she has done daily for the last week—she likes a challenge; she likes the magic of yeast; she likes to feed people; she likes knowing that no matter what tragedies fall in a day, her bread will rise and people will eat it. Today she ate one of the loaves with the fine poet who wrote the poem below.

(This one is for Vicki Forman. All love.)

Perseid Shower

Meteors break
through late summer night,

white blossoms scattering, furiously.
They don’t make a noise,

at least none
that we can hear.

They disappear in all directions
signifying desire

and its difficulty.
There. The half-moon floats

thin, translucent
as an insect’s wing. We say the moon is

half-full,
even as it wanes.

So much longing. . .
to witness the unfolding

across distance. How we must look
to anyone watching.

Here, the star cage:
Still life with black clock.


- Gary Short
from 10 Moons and 13 Horses



(On Tuesday August 12, the Perseid meteor shower will occur. Rebel Girl and family will look up that night, wherever they are. They hope you will too.)