Prelude to a Quieter Epilogue

The stars are fading now, against skies sinking within my reach,

holding storms too distant to matter without your breaths.

 

These days, I cannot taste the night anymore. And mornings love

to invade me with the raging pestilence of their light.

 

            *

Somehow my shadow finds comfort in other shadows, drenched

in murmurs, as though trapped in a house of prayers,

in the music of supplications.

 

But I still remember afternoons falling on grounds that cradle us

with laughter, bursting into colors that offer skies

a kaleidoscope of lucidities.

 

            *

 

As always, I long for the appearance of evening lights along the bay;

the noise around them disrupts the sky growing darker,

 

setting the scene for whatever might punctuate an immensity

that loves the silence of sleep undisturbed.

 

MICHAEL CAYLO-BARADI lives in California.  His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Blue Fifth Review, The Common, Eastlit, Eclectica, elimae, Eunoia Review, Ink Sweat & Tears, MiPOesias, Prick of the Spindle, and elsewhere. He has written book reviews for New Pages, and  is an alumnus of The Writers' Institute at The Graduate Center (CUNY).