Elegy: In Coherent Light

In memory of two English poets, Matt Simpson and Michael Murphy, d. 2009 Teach-cheap, teach-cheap, teach-cheap, teach-cheap— Sparrows are plying their chisels in the summer ivy, Chipping the seconds spark by spark out of the hours. I read in each whistling chip the sun’s holography. My brain’s a film, I’m made of timed exposures, And pounding my ears and eyes with waves of light— These animate flakes, these pictures I call sight. But now you’re out of the picture, no one can keep Coherent sightings of you, except in language.