Spell for Setting the Sun

Be slantwise on bark. Hammered
by shadows longer than want.
So what if the day turns to dry toast

and fetterbush? I'm sorry
for envy, sorry for lies.
Be slantwise on bark. Be bitten

in half. Peachglow then waferless,
the tide going out. A rinse
of apricot gone from the sky.

I'm sorry for thievery, sorry for pride.
Be bitten in half. Be juiceless
and dead, night's bold erasure. Kin

to the cloud-eaten moon. The dark
between stepping stones, a hole
in my sky. Be juiceless, be dead.

Copyright © 2005 Susan Meyers All rights reserved
from Crazyhorse
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission