Sleepwalking

When crystal quartz is cut at an exact angle coal with its dark wing
has the velocity of a hat
rolled by the wind

lakes reflected on a menu of shadows
carve magical signs on the birdbath
swallows slice the airgathering the clatter apparatus
like a circuit fully loaded

poles apart from sleeping
the wind curves moving to the northeast
if it could be articulated
there would be a collar of stiff fabric
empty but for the landscape

the night has a thousand eyes
but is the night echoless?
muscles tendons ligaments blood vessels
track a line between two bridges
a rabbit hurdle where
the will has no impact
where the foremost sleepwalker
pursues a dome
knowing the arch is a shape
that never sleeps

Roberta Olson

BIO:

Roberta Olson's poetry has appeared in numerous journals and magazines including Angle, Antenym, Clearcut Anthology, Ergo, Explosive Magazine, The Raven Chronicles and Talisman. She has read her work at such venues as Bumbershoot, the Bellevue Art Museum, the Canessa Park Gallery in San Francisco, Red Sky, Subtext, and Titlewave, for which she as also curated a reading.

She is married to the poet John Olson and lives in Seattle.