Saturday, April 15, 2006

Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Closing Night's Nocturne
by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
From The New Republic 3/7/05

At the end of an excellent career
the moon combs her hair
for one final time
in the narrow, half-lit window.
Tomorrow, all of her
memorized lines
and muttered perfections,
all of her heights, will burn.
Nothing left but the lights
that for so long framed the face.
And then, too, slowly the lights
to cinder.
Wait for the curtain to rise
again. "The hours"--she said--
"the hours I have now."
Wait for the encore, wait the human bow.

Phillips is an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/englishweb2.nsf/pages/phillips

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