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Meerschaum Pipe
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After William Michael Harnett, 1886
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\A/ lesser god
is struggling
to angle
fire
from sea—/primordial\
cauldron out of which
he seeks to ladle
\Aphrodite/. But she’s elusive
as smoke,
mouth-/held\
for a moment
then gone
\in/ puffs, dissipating
clouds. He’s forgotten
seashells. Forgotten
clay. Forgotten foam
and mist. /Forgotten\
her wisps of hair wind-
swept to cover
the arriving day.
Now, he’s \darkness—/
/night’s\ woodgrain
splintered
and pierced by ill-
\fated/ striving—
trying to string
a constellation, orientate
his /bearing\ to avoid
the tip and knocking out
as ash, the acute
of the \missed./
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AJ Saur is the author of five books of poetry from Murmuration Press, including, most recently, “Of Bone and Pinion” (2022). AJ’s poems have also appeared in Abandoned Mine, Front Range Review, Glimpse, The Midwest Quarterly, Muse, Third Wednesday, Willow Review, and other journals.