Pablo Otavalo
The Hunt
Across the northern sky,
beneath the handle of the little dipper, Ursa Minor,
the bear cub, a cut of light divides
a moment, then is gone, then remains,
its afterimage a fading scar
against the insistent blue black. Distant
traffic across the East-West interstate
fades into the hum of powerlines, which itself
fades, and the quiet fills your mouth.
A scrap
of interstellar debris, incinerated
by the upper atmosphere, memorialized by synaptic
circuits retracing their steps. Look back, past
the field of switchgrass, the lone porch light
on the rehabbed farmhouse, the silhouetted oaks,
hickories, edging the Vermillion River,
straight into the dark. Let your eyes
adjust, then look up at no one part of the sky,
but at the trembling vast. Slowly, your gaze
ripples the light— the air,
heavy with sumac— a dart
in your periphery, compelled by gravity
to burn.
--
Pablo Otavalo lives and writes in Chicago with his partner Rachel and their inscrutable cats Sebastian and Dorothy Parker. He is a recipient of the 2013 and 2014 Illinois Emerging Poet award and his work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in RHINO and Structo magazine. He is a reluctant dancer.
beneath the handle of the little dipper, Ursa Minor,
the bear cub, a cut of light divides
a moment, then is gone, then remains,
its afterimage a fading scar
against the insistent blue black. Distant
traffic across the East-West interstate
fades into the hum of powerlines, which itself
fades, and the quiet fills your mouth.
A scrap
of interstellar debris, incinerated
by the upper atmosphere, memorialized by synaptic
circuits retracing their steps. Look back, past
the field of switchgrass, the lone porch light
on the rehabbed farmhouse, the silhouetted oaks,
hickories, edging the Vermillion River,
straight into the dark. Let your eyes
adjust, then look up at no one part of the sky,
but at the trembling vast. Slowly, your gaze
ripples the light— the air,
heavy with sumac— a dart
in your periphery, compelled by gravity
to burn.
--
Pablo Otavalo lives and writes in Chicago with his partner Rachel and their inscrutable cats Sebastian and Dorothy Parker. He is a recipient of the 2013 and 2014 Illinois Emerging Poet award and his work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in RHINO and Structo magazine. He is a reluctant dancer.