Carter Vance
The harshness of city windows,
scrubbed-clean expanses of red brick,
the finishing school cafeteria clatter
up against inky cooling cauldrons
with tire rubber finish that stay
straining against foresight fever of
how much I needed, just to be
steady in the brigand morning.
Not staying there with anyone else,
imperfect in glassware revolution
style, shoelace fabric without
courage to slip out into
gossamer thread of kindred
spiriting, a blank repetition of
lyrical truth eluding us.
The darker silence of pastime
spaces consumes chalked-out light
fixture; how stars hid, blinked
beyond raising up
of old stone spires to where
the leaking of sun-faded fates
too do.
***
Carter Vance is a writer and poet originally from Cobourg, Ontario, Canada currently resident in Ottawa, Ontario. His work has appeared in such publications as The Smart Set, Contemporary Verse 2 and A Midwestern Review, among others. He was previously a Harrison Middleton University Ideas Fellow. His debut collection of poems, Songs About Girls, is currently available from Urban Farmhouse Press.