LIGHT FAILS IN THE MORNING

Low fog, the weight of clouds, a drizzling grey
bends every branch with the appalling weight
of almost rain, a weather incomplete
that muffles song, that closes up the flower,
that robs the sundial of its power of speech.
The unknown hours haunt the silent day,
unanchored shadows slowly gravitate
toward the edge of sight, where they repeat,
and bank on bank build their obscuring tower
that locks the far, pure sunlight out of reach.

Robin Richstone's poems have been published in Poetry, Beloit Poetry Journal, Kenyon Review, New England Review, North American Review, Seneca Review, Sycamore Review, and other magazines.