Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday.

Ophanim

Bull-cold dawn on fallow fields, a line of poplars

comb the sky — miles from home and wishing

we were alone, but there are eyes everywhere,

bursting from bark knots and barley hulls.

Tired of their irises, we picked a thousand eyes,
sowed them in furrows, rolled them off our fingers

until our whimsy grew Ophanim, hover-wings
with blinking eyes. We covered ours, and found

the way home, led by sun-grown guardians,
the wind chiding. When we’ve plugged the meter

for eternity, they’ll flutter at the windows,
we’ll turn, and see them wink

Oracle Smoke Machine, Christianne Goodwin‘s art-and-poetry collaboration with painter Stephen Proski, is out with Staircase Books (Cambridge, MA)

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx