Caught as I Am in Time
A poem by Lana Hechtman Ayers

Caught as I Am in Time

Bright sun is another’s joy.
Mine is overcast,
enclosure of soft shadow,

kiss of misty rain.

Within gray light
I breathe with eyes
wide open, deep sight,

no need to squint.

The world is glint
and green and mud,
drought and asphalt.

Salt and caramel.

I’ve inherited my grandmother’s
dulcet hands,
her sense of gentleness,

and clumsy thumbs.

The song stuck in my head
isn’t composed music
but crow caw, dog bark,

the dryer’s three-note signal.

When I chose to close
my eyes, there is deep purple
truth, the muted echoes

of my own briny pulse.

One shining day I’ll be caught.
in the amber of death,
time a poetry of undoing.

And this, too, will be love.

About the Author:

Lana Hechtman Ayers has shepherded over a hundred poetry volumes into print in her role as managing editor for three small presses. Her work appears in Escape Into Life, Rattle, The London Reader, Peregrine, The MacGuffin, and elsewhere. Lana’s ninth collection, The Autobiography of Rain, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. Her favorite color is the swirl of van Gogh’s The Starry Night. Say hello at LanaAyers.com.

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