Listen to Eric Paul Shaffer read "An Eye for Darkness:"
An Eye for Darkness
With face on floor and an eye for darkness,
anyone can seek the source of origins.
Beneath the couch
are those floating balls of fluff,
spun from nearly nothing that slowly grows
into something more,
from stuff sifting from skin,
from scalp, from clothes, from detritus and dirt
scattered in all directions—
all of which happen to be
couchbound, underward.
Sure, there are coins, calendars, and cat toys,
that one sock that is always missing,
a marble, a die, and one unidentifiable hudakai,
but there is always the presence
of jumpy, cloudy clumps,
the rolling hearts of chaos,
those coalescing spheres
gathering simply by the ineluctable attraction
of atoms for atoms, as galaxies swirl
from dust in darkness, coming to light,
under the couch of an untidy god.
Eric Paul Shaffer is author of five books of poetry, most recently Lāhaina Noon. His first novel, Burn & Learn, was published in November 2009. He teaches at Honolulu Community College.
