Two Poems by Carter Vance

Days of Plenty

I lay, arms stretched in darkness noon through the curtain call,

As you made the pinprick acts on me, a tense equality to protect us,

From hurting in the bright world, notions that we could be kissing

Some days as calico kittens, lost in fogs of harried longing:

Trapeze artists, dancing in each others eyesight, backing away from light.

Two Trees

We perched together,

dug in roots that

reached but did not intertwine

for so long to each other

That the first hint felt like

failing, felt like too many

trials rushing in,

But they were groundwater

quenching parch thirst, clearing

the throat for what came:

Brilliant laps of sunshine

that didn’t waste themselves turning

our leave a brilliant flash shade

Of green-blue crashing off the

sky we looked to and dreamed

of how to float if only there

Weren’t these tangles that kept us

tethered to ground.

But, then, sometimes,

We felt it was good to be

just where we were

with nothing else

But the memory that we

were once so solitary

so unringed by oaken time.

And now had a perfect spot

to shade each other.

ABOUT:

Carter Vance is a writer and poet originally from Cobourg, Ontario, Canada currently resident in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. His work has appeared in such publications as The Smart Set, Contemporary Verse 2, and A Midwestern Review, amongst others. He was previously a Harrison Middleton University Ideas Fellow. His latest collection of poems, Places to Be, is currently available from Moonstone Arts Press.

EDITOR'S SONG PAIRING: 2 Trees - FOALS