Poetry – Issue 9 | May 2010
Three poems by S. Thomas Summers
4:30am
Of course you know the house is still,
heavy with silence. The furniture
settles into the floor – stones into mud.
Left on the counter to soften,
a stick of butter abandons its shape.
I’m a disturbance, a fish breaching
the surface of a dozing pond. Even the dog
ignores my shuffle, grunts, twisting
into her pillow as tight as a knot. Yet,
it’s the only time of day I can bear
an hour’s thunk. Hefting darkness,
Apollo crouched beneath his sin,
I position myself in the living room’s heart,
my back propped against rising day –
a pillar against its toil.
About the author
S. Thomas Summers is a teacher of literature and writing at Wayne Hills High School in Wayne, NJ and an English professor at Passaic County Community College in Wanaque, NJ. He is the author of two chapbooks: Death Settled Well and Rather, It Should Shine. Summers’s poetry has also appeared in 2River View, The Pedestal Magazine, and Triggerfish Critical Review. His poem, A Fall from Grace won the IBPC 2009 poem of the year. Visit him where he breathes and blogs.
Next in Poetry: Three poems by Cindy Hunter Morgan
Previously in Poetry: Two Poems by Jon Sands
