“Tell Us a Secret”
When night’s aloft and the sky’s
torn up,
someone’s brother
has to journey.
Half to, half from, half
until doesn’t matter
as long as the myths aren’t skipped:
the gold cup, the hovering
firebird, the path
to the lake.
This is lightning,
and it wants a story.
This is summer, and it wants
more wine.
One time, I was the brother they sent;
that part isn’t secret.
The storm took the shape of a woman.
That’s the part that is.
Rob Carney is the author of four previous books of poems, most recently 88 Maps (Lost Horse Press, 2015), which was named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, as well as the forthcoming collection The Book of Sharks (Black Lawrence Press). In 2014 he received the Robinson Jeffers/Tor House Foundation Award for Poetry. His work has appeared in Cave Wall, Columbia Journal, and many others, and he writes a regularly featured series called “Old Roads, New Stories” for Terrain: A Journal of the Built and Natural Environments. He lives in Salt Lake City.
