“Draw the curtains
but leave the window open;
let the fingers in the breeze
slide across your back…”
Gray days demand a lyric, and Mark Burke has written a beautiful one about love and the break of dawn. Print out the broadside here, or enjoy “I Heard the Voices” in plain form below.
I HEARD THE VOICES
by Mark Burke
Draw the curtains
but leave the window open;
let the fingers in the breeze
slide across your back.
It is time for the weaving dance,
when we come back from rehearsing the past,
the hour before the roosters
scold the dark and the dogs
begin their crying songs.
It is the time when the light begins
to spread the thighs of night into day,
when the birds call to the light,
flakes of song drifting
as you slide closer
and rub twice against the heart of me,
hum the wordless song,
the light of your eyes flashing
across the stream between us.
———————-
Mark Burke’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in the North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Sugar House Review, Nimrod International Journal, and many other publications.
You can also find this poem on Medium.
True stories. Honestly.
