Air Show
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Air Show
You know your waybut you get to the cornerof some differenceout of nowhere
and everywhereyou are lookingfor that change you feelwhen you can put your finger on it
because you thought of callingto say happy birthday thenyou remember there are no more
as if changetook away another'sbreath to take yours for clarity
from the corner of your eyeout the fifteenth floor windowsee the flashed pass of the shadowcross the park below;
look up, see outabout ten blocks away alreadythe plane and the same time hearcome up from behind
and pass overheadits huge but lagging soundtoo late to answer what you've seenand win your awe:
it's that silencethat calls it, sound doesn't catch it. [End Page 771]
Ed Roberson is Distinguished Artist in Residence at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is author of eight books of poetry: The New Wing of the Labyrinth (Singing Horse Press, 2009), City Eclogue (Atelos, 2006), Atmosphere Conditions (Sun & Moon Press, 2000; winner of the 2000 National Poetry Award), Just In / Word of Navigational Challenges: New and Selected Poems (Talisman House, 1998), Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In (University of Iowa Press, 1995; winner of the 1994 Iowa Poetry Prize), Lucid Interval as Integral Music (University of Iowa Press, 1995; winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize), Etai-Eken (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975), and When Thy King Is a Boy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970). In 2008, he received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
