This is the poem Vast after I revised and edited it. I’m not sure which version I like better. This is about a good friend of mine. Something about him makes him a really good subject to write on, but I can’t pin down why. In any case, enjoy Vast 2.0 and decide for yourself which version is best.
I ask
“What are you afraid of?”
And you say
“The large vastness
Of the ocean”
And I envision you
Restless
Alone
Your mind sinking while you sleep
Haunted by the ocean
Pitch black except for that, deep
Blue water.
What am I afraid of?
The vast amount of meaning
Behind your eyes
When they’re fixed upon me
And I begin sinking into
Two black pools
That never seem to end.
The unconscious catch in my throat
When I look up
To see the vastness in your eyes
Piercing and searching all at once.
Like the Atlantic at midnight
Uncertainty under a pulsing,
Black current
Shining in spots
From a sliver of moonlight–
Brown eyes glinting from
The street lamp in the parking lot.
If I could hear the color
The blackness
The purity of the dark that fills your eyes
It’d sound like a rush of one hundred waves
Coming from all directions.
Deafening.