Enormous Blue Umbrella
Enormous, blue, and sad, this umbrella
we walk beneath. It’s winter still,
but who could tell with sky so poignant
blue it stings the eye, and merely a tinge
of cold informs the air. Passersby don’t
seem to notice the mountain’s sharp
outline beyond bayside homes.
And across the boulevard, across the sand,
beyond the stranded ships, Catalina shines
like tin foil. It’s the walkers I wonder about:
sad faces, our caps pulled down, moving fast,
no place special to go, so fierce to get there.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is the just released Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
oh how the details set this scene–and i love the way the poem moves like a camera lens, like a sacred cinema …