Monday Poem

Writing a New Leaf

this new page is here
just as morning’s here

without a mark upon it

virgin territory pristine as
Pleistocene snow

but the previous page below
is indecipherable

through the new white sheet
of this day’s blank uncertainty
it shows as lines of shadow

the absoluteness
of the leaf before
is now unclear

and as I look ahead
and let those pages slip
beneath my thumb
not only are those leaves
all deaf and dumb
they turn to mist
and fade and fail
and disappear

the good news is
this new leaf is here
.

Jim Culleny
1/30/15