wind does not stop
tilting pines
thrashing eucalyptus
slanting humans through the sway of sun.
Tatters of someone’s kite
flap strangled in the phone wires.
Day stumbles pastels over the hills
then chills blue.
To my fingers your skin dents
more gently than a keyboard.
Your plastic
dews under my hand.
I wait.
I listen for breath.
There is
no answer.
R. S. Carlson retired from Azusa Pacific University in 2014. His poems have appeared in The Texas Review, Poet Lore, The Cape Rock, Genre, The Hawai’i Review, and elsewhere. Carlson’s full-length poetry book, Waiting to Say Amen, is available from Lulu.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com.