James Valvis

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We Move Toward Things That Glow


I

We move toward things that glow.
Like bugs in the summer evening.
We move toward things that glow.

Marilyn Monroe.  Joe Dimaggio.
We move toward things that glow.

II

My father used to be Johnny Cash.
At least, he tried to be.
He wore all black and a cowboy hat.
He moved toward things that glowed.

Who says black can’t glow?

III


My mother looked to the heavens,
shook her head like a pro.
She had me and men walked on the moon.
We move toward things that glow.

IV

Icarus was a good boy.
Listened to his father carefully.
Got in the air and that was that.

He looked up and had to go.

V

Narcissus loved the river, how it flowed.
Others think he loved himself.

Doesn’t matter either way.

He moved toward whatever glowed.


VI

Who loves me?  I don’t know.
Who loves you?  You don’t know.

We sometimes move toward what we hope will glow.

But we don’t know.

VII

I run here and there—a pocket full of dough.
What’s left to do but to do it and be done?

I feel as dim as dim can be.
I yearn to stop and grow.
I yearn for you to come to me.

VIII

If you remember nothing else, remember this:
A kiss is just a kiss.
A sigh is just a sigh.

But a glow will always glow.

IX

I will hold you late tonight.
Rock your head, let it go.
I will hold you late tonight.

I wait for you to turn to me.

I wait for me to glow.

 

Bio

James Valvis's poetry or fiction has appeared this year or is forthcoming in 5 AM, Arts & Letters, Clackamas Literary Review, Confrontation, Crab Creek Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Hanging Loose, Hurricane Review, Light Quarterly, Quercus Review, New Laurel Review, New York Quarterly, Nimrod, Pearl, Potomac Review, Rattle, Red Rock Review, Slipstream, South Carolina Review, Southern Indiana Review, and others.

He will be the featured poet in the next issue of Re)verb.

Valvis's collection of short stories, The Winters in Jersey, was put out by Mt Aukum Press.  His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.  A novelette was a storySouth Notable Story for 2005.