REMOVES SLEEP FROM THE EYELIDS
… המעביר שנה מעני ותנומה מעפעפי
A good soaking overnight
and now the clouds
hover spent, going nowhere.
Already the yellowjackets
are up looking for someone
to mess with. Blue jays
mock my prayer which
would be fine if only
they’d help clear last night’s
plates and tissues. But no
they had no part in the mess
and they won’t help
with the aftermath.
My Y is busy recomposing
herself from shining fragments
and my boys are off
to learn something about the world.
Something just fell out of a tree.
Don’t say I was fooled
into thinking I could matter.
Say rather… Say instead,
say nevertheless. Say even still.
Author’s Bio
Adam Sol is an award-winning poet, writer, and teacher. He is the author of four collections of poetry, including Crowd of Sounds, which won Ontario’s Trillium Award; and Complicity, which was shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. His most recent book is How a Poem Moves: A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry. He teaches at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College and lives in Toronto with his wife, Rabbi Yael Splansky, and their three sons.