1
now
in this afternoon
as river fog creeps
dragging it's thickness
licking us in heavy air

in this time
that is not time
we amenities shall speak
of what went unspoken
shall see and place
the invisible signs

.  .  .  .  . .

afternoon: the whistle summoned
its great silence
the omnipresent shroud of grief
the sewers cheered its sound
rustled its rusted soul
giving up its secret sins
to a slow drying
of an incipient wind

children in unholy air
forgetting themselves
beyond hope in despair
lie in promise inhaling artificial prayer
deceitfully free
in manufactured immortality
young gods in destruction
serving enchanted eyes
from dreams awakened
and came to an end

2
light within light
light without light
in an eternal horizon
the exquisite perfection of a void;
flying, promising, expiring

the Intercourse of troubled air
and smoke in waning light
the infinite of incense and white wine
calling witness

in this moment
in this time

3
from the vaulted silences
climb the stairs to
exchange the word
descend, give sermon
and climb again

at the given hour appointed, consumed
as we lie in plastic passion
our synthetic love shared

touch my lips and feel my words
and hold my soul to breathe them
together drifting
made gods by by our union
of multifoliate frailty

4
perhaps once we were vestal
pure and coveted
touching the undefinable
as we began to explore

devoured or deflowered
both an ending
satiated in the void
of the light: artificial

Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer and award winning poet, in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. His  poems have appeared in Philadelphia Poets, Tower Poetry, The Windsor Review, and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century. He has two books of poetry published ,The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street.