7 July 2006 | Vol. 6, No. 2
The Demands of Fading Light
The double-red horizon
of my fading life
demands all of me.
And you.
Something is swimming
beneath the ice.
I love you with all
of my most
unfortunate soul.
Beginning here, beginning
there makes no sense.
We want the gray old
winter to climb down
through the smoking pines
astride his white mule
to forgive us each separately.
Such a delicious meal
we could have together:
walleyes from the ice,
the fire stoked high
with dry twigs,
the planets fishing
for us, wanting
us.
We have only melted snow
to drink in this
reddened dark.
I've lost us
here
on purpose.
About the author:
Rustin Larson's poetry has appeared in the New Yorker, the Iowa Review, North American Review, Poetry East, the Atlanta Review, and other magazines. Crazy Star (Loess Hills Books, 2005) is his latest collection. A five-time Pushcart nominee, and graduate of the Vermont College MFA in Writing, Larson was an Iowa Poet at the Des Moines National Poetry Festival in 2002 and 2004 and has been highlighted on the public radio programs "Live from Prairie Lights" and "Voices from the Prairie." He lives in Fairfield, Iowa.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Rustin Larson at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 6, No. 2, where "The Demands of Fading Light" ran on July 7, 2006. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
