Tuesday, November 23, 2004
 
Okauchee Light

Wandering into the dark kitchen, I saw that a neighbor had left its back porch light on, and it reminded me of a poem I had written when I was younger:
    Okauchee Light

    Across the dark Okauchee lake, a light,
    the marker for the end of someone's dock,
    is strangely lit at nearly twelve o'clock
    and breaks the solid black that is the night.
    From here, across the chilling April lake,
    through busy bar room glass I see that glow,
    but life or rooms beyond I'll never know.
    One light does not a utopia make.
    Quite like your smile, that single man-made star:
    Up there, on stage, you flash a smile at me,
    and crinkle eyes to give the gesture weight,
    but like the dock-end light, you are too far;
    your glow is there for someone else to see,
    and now, for me at least, it is too late.
I wrote about the keyboardist in the band my friends and I followed around Milwaukee as they played the fairs and bars. Acourse, as an English major, I felt damn proud to mirror The Great Gatsby with the whole bit. Man, I was the little sonnet slut then, casting off fourteen liners at the slightest provocation.

Remember, friends, this piece is copyright 1991(?) Brian J. Noggle, and you've got to click that little Contact link below and beg offer me scads of money ask for permission to repost.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:43 PM
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