Somedays you go out into the city
To touch the vast swirl of other lives.
You want to know their struggles,
Their small circle of triumphs,
The scent their sadness leaves behind.
It takes a lifetime to know our own story,
And in the sudden comfort of the brightened page
The ink runs dry, the meanings change.
Maybe to bend beneath the simple grief,
The platitudes of longing, is all we get.
I miss you because
I am caught In the Jay’s clockwork music.
It turns its pluvial blue head
And stares into the absence I carry with me.
For what can be filled, let it be filled and lightened.
For everything else, the love-like rush
That comes and goes.

Seth Jani currently resides in Seattle, WA and is the founder of Seven Circle Press (www.sevencirclepress.com). His own work has been published widely in such places as The Coe Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, Hawai`i Pacific Review, VAYAVYA Gingerbread House and Gravel. More about him and his work can be found at www.sethjani.com.