States of Poetry - Poems
States of Poetry 2016 - TAS | 'Swallowing the Sky' by Jane Williams
by Jane Williams •
Swallowing the sky
What can I say about this
spring day but that the leaping
dog cloud has stolen my attention
away from all earthly blooms.
Such fine points of ears,
legs built for speed, for the hunt,
tail set to thump nothing into being,
open jawed, tasting life on the hop.
Yet even as this poem takes shape,
its inevitable dissolve has begun:
a quiver in the back legs then the front,
a reluctant heel to domesticity,
the ears next, nibbled away
by some cunningly
camouflaged predator,
the tail unceremoniously
dropping off altogether
until finally all that remains
is the ever widening
sky swallowing jaw
of the leaping dog cloud
no more.
Jane Williams