POEM OF THE WEEK

Poem of the Whenever

11 July 2008

Heavyweight Champion of the Night

(FROM WOLFF'S NEW BOOK, HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE NIGHT)

This is the weight of 2 St. Bernards.

This is the weight of 20 Abyssinian cats.

This is the weight of a barrel of Argon gas.

Remember this weight.

Remember this naked chest against your naked chest.

This is the exact weight of something words can’t exactly express.

This is the weight of the laughter of ten thousand children.

This is the weight of the sun’s face wearing the moon as a mask.

This is the weight of wishes, half-risen in a light rain.

This is the weight of again

and again

and again.

Remember this chest. Remember this breath.

This is the weight of all I am and all I have.

This is the weight of silence making love to language.

This is the weight of binary stars dancing in the black.

Remember this. Our hearts close as two whippoorwills,

separated by the flesh of twilight.

This is the weight of friendship dressed in rags of fire.

This is the weight of the pale, gold ore of your irises.

This is the weight of a lion made of questions.

Remember this weight, this night, this space.

This is the weight of everything I’m struggling to say.

This is the weight of my ribs on your ribs, bone

branches mingled by summer wind.

This is the weight of two small, pale objects

dropped from a tower, from Newton ’s fists,

falling at the same ineffable speed

in the gravity of happiness.

~Wolff

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