Outside & Inside

Outside & Inside

by Claudette Bouman

It’s falling,

Beyond the frontiers of sight

Into the circle of touch.

A timid flick on the nose,

Picture below

Pinpricks of blacker on black pavement,

Stones, manholes.

Next a tiny staccato pick-picking of dry leaves

Inside the edges of sound

A soft tinkling on tyrant winter’s leftovers.

Still falling beyond failing eyes

But contained by smell’s borders

Petrichor─warm, earthy, acrid

It goes clear through, piercing.

Is it drizzle or mizzle?

The mourning dove knows

It laments create haunting airs

Reaching inner ranges of waking ears

Just before falling off the hearing cliff,

Getting inside sad-cooings and outside silences.

Published in Open Heart Forgery, March 19, 2022.

Digital version available here.