By Despy Boutris
of heroes of their bravery
of the way buildings in quakes sway like trees
in breeze threatening collapse
like the sun hiding behind nimbi
and light gets lost in the fog
the streetlights’ glow brightening this haze
as you walk along the gravel road
thinking about the night how it falls
how we fall and what’s heroic
and what’s brave about falling
about swaying the darkness
all these pine needles falling
all this silence this stillness
nothing to look at but our hands
Despy Boutris’s writing has been published or is forthcoming in AGNI, Ploughshares, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.