Nyctophobia
I’ll stay awake, stay up all night,
Keep wide my eyes and cocked my ears;
I’ll keep the whole damn room within my sight,
The phone in my left hand, a gun in my right
I’ll stay awake, stay up all night,
Keep wide my eyes and cocked my ears;
I’ll keep the whole damn room within my sight,
The phone in my left hand, a gun in my right
“If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.”
—Falsely attributed to Alexander Hamilton
Maybe we will see Katahdin, we tell our children; maybe we will see a moose. Pulling over at the Lewiston Travel Center, trucks at the tagging station, hunting season just beginning.
there is a stillness in me that refuses to be translated,
oceans within oceans; my halcyon halocline unmoving,
stiffened by my own salty breath.
There is no lifeboat, no raft,
no deserted island with coconut trees
and fresh water. You can’t slow down
the waves.
Image: “Yellow Flowers” by Carla Paton. “The Rote Stuff” was written by Gary Glauber for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, September 2023, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.