Going Outside
           —Southern California, April 19, 2022, 10 A.M.

Oh, close star, how gorgeous
on this breeze-cool morning
is your light—everything
rustling, turning in it, like a bird
fluttering in a bath, throwing off
sparks. Thankfulness rises in me
for being laved in such magnificence,
and not living like a fish
in an inky cave, useless eyes
forever disabled—until I think:
How can I know what
it is like to swim, eyeless,
in the tranquil blue,
around and around
as the water makes
little lapping sounds
against cave walls?
And I’m happy just
to be alive in this sun,
without comparison.

*

Judy Kronenfeld’s fifth book of poetry, Groaning and Singing (FutureCycle) came out in February, 2022. Previous collections include Bird Flying through the Banquet (FutureCycle, 2017) and Shimmer (WordTech, 2012). Her poems have appeared in over three dozen anthologies and in such journals as Cider Press Review, Gyroscope Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, New Ohio Review, Offcourse, One, Rattle, Slant, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Verdad, and Your Daily Poem. Judy is Lecturer Emerita, Department of Creative Writing, UC Riverside, and an Associate Editor of Poemeleon. She lives in Riverside, California.