Twilight Promises
by Sam Barbee
outshine morning glare. Sunlight a ruse,
I step over doubt proving shadows have no rule.
A preoccupation with barren moonlight
is a hug from deception’s silk sleeves,
doubling down on doubts over yesterday’s
choices. I’d rather merge with stars.
No rainbow colors at midnight, still
my joy favors a horizon inviting twinkle
over scarlet clouds. Pastel raiment reigniting
dusk with weaves inviting the dance
of a true believer. I denounce deities who require
tributes burnt for previous transgressions.
I ignore those eager to read my horoscope,
humming stale anthems, music distorted
on black keys. Skeptics, flaunting candelabras,
claim visions to help sort their crystal beads.
Huffing amens, awestruck with smoke blown
across rags and bones. Hardened, I navigate
any flood to a forty-first night and dawn’s mist
without chaperon to whisk me to a bland feast
on hard manna and sour nectars. Let me serve
as my own cleric for upcoming communions,
happy to kneel before a humble altar where
an eleventh commandment counsels patience.
***
Sam Barbee’s newest collection is titled Apertures of Voluptuous Force (2022, Redhawk Publishing). He has three previous poetry collections, including That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), which was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016. Also, Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag), which chronicles family travels throughout England. His poems have appeared recently in Poetry South, Salvation South, and upcoming in Cave Wall, among others; plus online journals Dead Mule School of Literature, American Diversity Report, Grand Little Things, Verse-Virtual, and Medusa’s Kitchen. He is a two-time Pushcart Nominee. He served as President of the Winston-Salem Writers, and also NC Poetry Society, and is one of the originators of the Poetry In Plain Sight — now in its thirteenth year — a poetry initiative to feature NC poets on broadside posters and display them in NC towns statewide.
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