This Night Too is Round

 

 

And in the end it is another night of disappointment,

one more carousel that revolves without incident.

The barstool turned out to be a barstool,

not a unicorn or Pegasus,

the momentary bursts of laughter gone

 

so fast they too could have been inventions.

No one shudders at your leaving. The friends

and lovers who visited you

in your glass this evening, who came

 

bright as neon and went like melting ice—

they’ll return tomorrow to look for your hand,

in the same festival of lights. And

you’ll be waiting for them to come back,

 

to choose you. It is not so strange you are

continually flattered by this. It is, after all,

a moment you may not remember, but know.

 

 

Patrick Carrington is the poetry editor for the art & literary journal Mannequin Envy (www.mannequinenvy.com) His manuscript Thirst has just won Codhill Press’ 2006 Poetry Chapbook Award and will be released in early 2007. Carrington's poetry has appeared in The Potomac Review, Rattle, The Evansville Review, The New York Quarterly, Quercus Review and other journals. His first book-length collection, Rise, Fall, and Acceptance (MSR Publishing, 2006), is available at Main St. Rag (www.mainstreetrag.com).