Talking to Shadows
Rent from DeepDyve- Talking to Shadows
“…they will wield power in the smallest ways”
—Colm Toibin
Early evening, the first lamps light in dewon grass. Before I’ve walked half the hill,they’re there among the streetlight’s ellipsis,the brocade of trees trying to remembergreen, and the silence that avoids sayinganything that might reach ears.
To speak to shadows is to remain stillin their reshaping of the world. Longlimbs lengthen, slanting toward each other,as if a hard wind pushes them over Earth.A church tower crosses the road, onlyits chimes reaching the last of daylight. [End Page 83]
Ron Houchin is the author of the acclaimed poetry collection The Man Who Saws Us in Half, winner of the 2013 Weatherford Award in Poetry, as well as six other collections. His most recent is Planet of the Best Love Songs. A retired public high school teacher, he lives on the banks of the Ohio River across from Huntington, West Virginia, where he grew up.
