Ross White, honorable mention prizewinner in the 10th annual Zócalo Poetry Prize.
I want & want & the moon
keeps blazing
orange in night sky.
Coyotes keep baying
to the gods who hide
the rabbits.
Like
lemmings & town drunks,
waterfalls keep throwing themselves
aqueously
over cliffs & I want.
Mushrooms tip
their purpling caps
as if daydreaming &
through all descending mists
I want & want. What
hunger. What salute
to desire
is this paddock in darkness,
swelling with the guttural urging
of toads &
symphonic creaking
the grasshoppers saw
from the teeth
of their legs.
I want all nights to be this
night & all nights to ache
with this want &
I want & want
& how
& how could I not.