Patrick Carrington is the poetry editor at
Mannequin Envy (www.mannequinenvy.com) and author of Rise, Fall and
Acceptance (Main Street Rag, 2006),
Thirst (Codhill, 2007) and the forthcoming Hard Blessings. His poetry
has appeared recently (or will soon) in The Connecticut Review, Rattle,
The Evansville Review, The New York Quarterly and other journals.
A Trespass of Radiance
I believe in ghosts.
I have seen their shadows
shifting
through the blurry center of night.
Squinting, I know they are there, bright
inside the moonbands that softly wrap
their edges. And I have heard
darkness ache with their
nightmares.
I have listened, as if my unscarred ears
could share their song, my throat capture
courage so cheaply to sing of everlasting
wounds that leave them that stricken
and white. I, in my safe bed, worried
by the tiny rages of day,
its petty
holocausts, have reached out to touch
their light. Arrogantly trespassed
the thorns, not understanding midnight
is a deep, dark thing, or that privacy
bolts and braces their beacon.
