The Ofi Press Magazine

Henry Gould (USA), published in Issue 28.

Photo: http://lillyphotographywv.wordpress.com/

Henry Gould lives in Providence, Rhode Island. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in Jacket, Lit, Critical Flame, Mudlark, Providence Journal, Apex of the M, and other journals. He maintains a literary blog at : http://hgpoetics.blogspot.com. He also edited and published the collected poems of poet, translator and scholar of Hispanic and Portuguese literature, Edwin Honig, titled Time & Again : poems 1940-1997 (XLibris, 2000).

         ATLANTIS

         It was behind the slough, where we floated

         the raft ‒ where we swung the tire-swing

         over clay-brown slime (that muddy pond).

         A miniature upland meadow.  Grass waves,

         milkweed lighthouses... ragged frieze

         of stray unbroken apple trees, let out to

         graze.  Summer night, Atlantean (remote,

         somewhere).  Heidi invited us.  The girls

         had orchestrated everything (flashlights,

         nets, jars) ‒ so we trailed along, into their

         quaint galaxy.  Coltish laughter, shimmer

         of Salomé-grass.  Ukiyo... paper-lantern

         ambience.  When we gathered fireflies

         under firefly stars (garnet, violet, marine).