Nathan Manley
Fragment on a Lark’s Song
O melodist of the lengthening day,
whose subtle airs inspire a field of us
to wordlessness—hieratic and strange
as a visitation: flown from the throat
of Sacred Somewhere in the star-stung spheres,
dimming vale of the outermost heaven
innermost: circled, circling. Let your song
surge and thrill above the thrush and grackle,
above the crackle of the plastic bags
in which a magpie, less-than-gladsome king
of the emptied street, shreds refuse, cricking
claws against bitumen, black and wind-brushed.
O bird my mother loved best, bright piper
in the daylight’s lees, what seraphic strain
recedes beyond the ken of dusk
with <…>
<…> [yours]
<…> smoke-throttled <…>
cities worked the engine atmospheric
<…> [mordant] and a fumbled rest,
<…> before the season[’s]
<…> [extinguished window] <…>
your tune, soft and sanguine <…>
<…> life’s last September blush[.]
Nathan Manley is a writer and teacher from Loveland, Colorado. He is the author of one chapbook, Numina Loci (2018, Mighty Rogue Press). His poems have appeared sporadically in literary journals both online and in print, including Think Journal, Split Rock Review, Flint Hills Review, and others. His work has also been nominated for Best of the Net. You can find his writing and instrumental music at nathanmmanley.com