Revisiting

 Over the summer I’ve missed a lot of things about college. The pianos. The independence.

The food (ha, just kidding).

But the thing I think I’ve missed the most was how simple it was just to take a peaceful stroll around campus late in the evening. The stars are so much more visible out here, as opposed to in my fairly large hometown, where you have to drive for twenty minutes to find a dark enough place for stargazing.

This summer I’ve missed the closeness I feel-to myself, to God, to the trees-during those nighttime walks. I’ve missed the stars and the poetry they’ve inspired.

But guess what? Now I’m back.

 

Night Campus

Without the sun it’s the same world.

 

The same trees line the same sidewalks,

branches draping just so

leaves still breathing out the same sigh of oxygen

that occupies the same space,

breaks against the same stark corners

and weathered window frames of the same

dignified edifices.

 

The same, and yet unfamiliar world-

a closer world lit by moonlight

and nocturnal lampposts

with the same sky, only bluer.

I got a new journal

 Vibraphone

I like the cover of this book

the solid way it sits in my hands

sturdy binding holding it together

 

insides packaged neatly so as not to spill

their messy contents

onto the floor of my bedroom

incoherent scribbles splattering the wallpaper,

evidence of some grisly scene.

 

The many unstained pages of this book

brush against my hands

smooth and delicate within their binding,

 

which, when you tap it

produces a short-lived knock

not unlike the occurrence of one’s heart

contracting and expanding,

only noticeable when its determined beats

 

thud against one’s ribcage

so that its vibrations travel along bone

encased in fragile binding,

blood pressing into the back of one’s fingernails

 

a sound more felt than heard.