afterglow
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af*ter*glow \ \ n. 1. The light esp. in the Ohio sky after sunset: as in the look of the mother-of-pearl air during the morning's afterglow. 2. The glow continuing after the disappearance of a flame, as of a match or a lover, and sometimes regarded as a type of phosphorescent ghost: This balm, this bath of light / This cocktail of lust and sorrow, /This rumor of faithless love on a neighbor's lips, / This Monday morning, this Friday night, / This pendulum of my heart, / This salve for my soul, / This tremble from your body / This breast aflame, this bed ablaze / Where you rub oil on my feet, / Where we spoon and, before sunrise, turn away / And I dream, eyes open, /swimming /In this room's pitch-dark landscape.
A. Van Jordan is author of two books of poems, Rise (winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award) and M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A (to be published in 2004 by Norton). This Ohio native teaches at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
