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Starnight by Tom Romero

"STARNIGHT"
copyright 2006 by TOM ROMERO

Cottonwood Seeds

A poem by Thomas R. Smith

This time of year the air fills with stars,
the warm wind pushing them upstream
against the river's fast glimmer.

From their radiant swarm, we can sometimes
pluck a tuft so insubstantial
it's difficult to pinch the gossamer

wings back from flight. The seed, white inside
its silver aura, sails the light's current
to arrive at a darkness it needs.

One might imagine it there, planted,
growing an angel instead of a thick-
barked, deep-rooted cottonwood tree.

Copyright 2006 by Thomas R. Smith

Photo of Thomas R. Smith

Thomas R. Smith is the author of several books of poems, most recently The Dark Indigo Current (Holy Cow! Press, 2000) and Winter Hours (Red Dragonfly Press, 2005). His self-published anti-war chapbook, Peace Vigil: Poems for an Election Year (And After) will be available for the duration of the Bush administration. He lives in River Falls, Wisconsin, and teaches at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, and can be reached via email at: thosmith@spacestar.net.

Editors' note:Thomas R. Smith was one of the poets who graciously honored our request to contribute his work to the premiere issue of Cezanne's Carrot. Because of the theme of this poem, Thomas allowed us to hold it until this, our Vernal Equinox, issue.

Photo by Phil Pfuehler. Reprinted by
permission of the River Falls Journal.

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