Elective Affinities
And not any old egg
but a colossal egg
almost as large
as the cage itself
standing on end
able to hold
a murmuration of starlings
a migration of snow geese
a message of crows
so that I wonder
how it got there
in the first place
what kind
of creature
might have laid it
what mysteries
are so great
they must be kept
in a cage
what kind
of universe
it might birth
if only someone
would please come
let it out
and hatch it
The Empire of Light
 
After Philip Memmer after
Magritte
in the street of our house the shade hums dark
                                               
dark the trees, dark the night
 
in the first floor of our house the windows are shuttered
                                               
close the night, empty the street
 
in the cusp of our twilight, our lives are still
                                               
shhhh, shhhh
 
on the edge of our dark  the lamp sings light
                                               
delight the gloam, dim the street
 
on the second floor of our lives  the windows are lit
                                               
quiet the light, uncloud our lives
 
in the clouds of sky the empire chants
tonight         
                                               
open the clouds, daylight the mind
 Daniel Hudon,
originally from Canada, lives in Boston, USA and teaches physics,
astronomy and math at the college level. He is the author of Brief Eulogies for Lost Animals: An
Extinction Reader (Pen & Anvil Press, 2017). He has recent
poems appearing in Biophilia, The Woods
Reader, and Albatross.
 
