"After Reading Foerster"

Were I to hold my tongue
   I'd close time; and even if
these words do not belong to me
   gathered as they are
in the starry curtain of my thoughts of you
   borrowed perhaps, like a plagiarist's dream
but given in any case, a close approximation
   of how I feel, the plundered soul
plucked from some depthless vision of you,
   your desire to see your own reflection
mirrored there, broken, like tears
   on the back of your hand:
last words, which didn't mean anything
   but the time we spent apart.

 

Richard Hillman is the editor of SideWaLK, a poetry and poetics journal: (email sidewalkpoe@hotmail.com). He has had three collections of poetry published and has recently released an anthology of South Australian poetry entitled Flow: Friendly Street Reader 25#. His poetry has appeared widely in Australia and overseas. Recent publications include Ascent, Stirring, Antipodes, Samsaras, The Animist, Prose Ax, Pith, Overland, Imago, and elsewhere.