January 29, 2023
by Sean Sexton
One glance into dark, then another upon a hard red bruise
healing slowly east. The Orb stays hidden in its chamber
as in upper reaches, gray shades begin to draw, growing
the sky perceptibly lighter—each glimpse—bringing forth
dark silhouettes of the chimes, leaves, tendrils and vines
through the porch screen
—my predictable world.
Now the prism arrays—first darkly yet distinctly—as the sky
receives anew its ancient ordering of light.
We love to be surprised—
but we love this more.
After long drought borne of misery and medicine—can it be
called medicine? We made love this morning. Real medicine.
Real.
Now the sky is overwhelmed in a bottomless orange hue as
lovers become overwhelmed in their own deep light. Vagrant
mist begins to rise at the hem of tree and land in soft approbation.
Suddenly frogs start creaking out of nowhere. What just happened?
It’s like not quite knowing the news.
Soon pink streaks—criss-cross the midair—angry as scars with
their certain beauty.
A dove’s rustle and coo fades into the overweening ruckus of
machinery: east, west, and passing overhead.
How we have ruined the world.
Sean Sexton was born in Indian River County and grew up on his family's Treasure Hammock Ranch. He divides his time between managing a 700-acre cattle operation, painting, and writing. He is author of two chapbooks, and three full volumes of poetry: Blood Writing, Poems, Anhinga Press, 2009, and May Darkness Restore, Poems, Press 53, 2019, and Portals, Poems, Press 53, 2023. He performs regularly at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV, and is on the faculty of the 2024 Southeastern Writers Assn. Conference on St. Simon's Island, GA in June . He was nominated for a 2020 and 2021 Pushcart Prize and received a FL Individual Artist’s Fellowship in 2001. He's a board member of the Laura Riding Jackson Foundation and founding event chair of their Annual Poetry and Barbeque held each April, now in its fifteenth year. He also co-founded Poetry and Organ Advent and Lenten Concert Series at Community Church in Vero Beach, FL featuring nine concerts annually attracting poets from all over the US. He became inaugural Poet Laureate of Indian River County in 2016.
