————-—Such a thin membrane between
this world and the next: the fisherman
in this photo on an Ocracoke morning
pulling something enormous from his net,
the photo nailed to drywall in my den,
and beyond the insulation, plywood, clap-
board, snow devils whirl in a frozen pasture,
carving drifts the size of great waves
off the coast of Ocracoke.——– Such a thin
membrane: this permeable wall between
warmth and chill, through which wind
sends icy messages, worrying the artful
fabric of an old scroll painting, a bluebird
perched on a limb of a blossoming plum,
its head cocked, listening to something far off
Neil Shepard’s most recent collections are The Book of Failures (Madville) and How It Is: Selected Poems (Salmon). He edits the online journal Plant-Human Quarterly and teaches at Poets House in New York.
Image: D. Koi. Unsplash, 2021.
