Coal Oil Point No. 9

First light
beginning clear and violent
in the East.
There is no sound.

All I carry 
of the cypresses
             the dust
             is here
and the sunflowers
the smell of corn and horses
where I'm walking.

There are towns here too
and in them
men to pass the time.
I know them.

Over their streetlights
over their shadows and voices
quick winds and
darkness when the sun goes
nowhere any water.

William Timberman