An alarm goes off
as you stumble out of the dark
mood you took to bed.
When you find a note
at the kitchen table
written in the hand of a child
who is not a child.
Soon enough one learns to crawl
through a miniature world.
Soon enough you learn about ladders,
mirrors, lamplight, rain
and rumors, the wind,
and the ghosts in the wind.
You’ll learn to listen to a lone bird
whose song pierces
whatever’s left of this darkness
breaking open
which reminds you,
you still believe in luck.
Arthur Solway’s poetry and essays have appeared, most recently, in The Antioch Review, BOMB, The London Magazine, Salmagundi, Tri-Quarterly, Tupelo Quarterly, with forthcoming work in Barrow Street. A manuscript of poems, written while living and working in Shanghai, China for over a decade, was cited among the finalists for both the 2019 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award and for the 2018 Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize. He is a frequent contributor of reviews, cultural essays and profiles to Artforum, Frieze, and Art Asia Pacific magazines. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, he currently lives Santa Cruz, California with his wife and daughter.
