Today's poem is by Matthew Zapruder

Palanquin
       

When I was a child I used to read
such long books summer went on forever
my room was filled with trees
a blue river flowed above me at night
I was surrounded by a yellow house
I did not yet know the difference between silences
in the longest one a king could never be killed
because he always rode by himself
In his palanquin, his solitude was his armor
I pronounced it in my mind
on the final page the war for the emerald
had ended and another loomed
I can't remember if he married the ghost
he had seen in the park when he was a boy
or the daughter of the relentless
assassin patiently waiting in the sequel
when I say it now it resounds in my skull
I'm still not sure how it should sound
it's like one of those names you see
carved into a stone in those old graveyards
you can find in every city if you have enough time

Copyright © 2024 Matthew Zapruder All rights reserved
from ONLY POEMS
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission