"The Sky" first appeared in the Literature In Person "Take a Poem to Lunch" series in 2010
The Sky
We instruct bank robbers and kindergarteners
to do the same thing: Reach for the sky,
as if clouds could carry them all the way
to that molten gold lamp called the sun.
Some say it grants wishes or burns them,
depending. Others say: (half warning /
half encouragement) The sky’s the limit,
though we know a sky is but layers of gas
leading out to space where the universe
continues in the absence of matter.
Thus we guard mountains who hide the sun
under their caps, believing one blast
will break the sky open, setting them free.
Thus do ruly oceans obey their teachers,
stretch each wave-arm up on tip-toe, trying
to touch the stars. Thus, even on flat fields,
corn points each ear up, feels a celestial
combination click out its secrets, hides
a golconda of gold in thick leaves.
In harvest, kernel shells lodge between our teeth,
emptied of the sun’s light beamed down to earth.
Swallowing, our heads fall back and find
our hands are still up in the air.
