They lie here side by side
in the long sleep, and I
wish I could set my ear
to the ground above them
and hear the night-talk,
those unintelligible words
I strained to hear when
as a boy I lay in bed
on the other side of the wall
and tried to sleep. I would
knock on the ground as once
I tapped the wall’s barrier
only to hear my father say,
Take it easy over there.
Then I would close my eyes
and, drifting off to sleep,
convince myself
that the darkness loves me.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 16, Issue 1.
V. P. Loggins is the author of The Fourth Paradise (Main Street Rag 2010), Heaven Changes (Pudding House Chapbook Series 2007), as well as two critical books on Shakespeare. His poems and articles have appeared in The Baltimore Review, The Dalhousie Review, The Formalist, The Healing Muse, Memoir (and), Poet Lore and The Southern Review, among others. He was a finalist for the May Swenson Award and the Cider Press Review’s Book and Editor’s Prizes.
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