At first light the sun plays with us in a once veiled sky with luminous
sea birds swallowing glances from the green waters,
along feathered winds sweeping the white sand
to uncover shadowy roses for our vase rescued from war
in the eyes of intimacy from double lives
in thresholds of some parts of the city
open ports
push us on high heels of a stepped up underground
Sailing by islands, blinded at first light, brighter than sandstone
in unrecognizable waves, a sea voyage covers
quick black-green waters to embrace vagrant harbors
encircling grey winds; a skiff hums along high mountains
the first snow on the windshield swore me to liquid silence
In the flaring sky, blue depths of light shows us
a riverbank universe foraging messages
in flashbacks of time as meteors stream
higher than flames covered with centuries
from a gossamer web of clouds,
on ex camera worlds peering down
dropping in a gone buzzard of a second
from every trace of bird music millennia
opening landscapes and transports
of brass rings engulfed over middle
earth, deltas, woods, ponds, meadows
as flicks of the moon from silvery echoes
breaking into thousands of gold dust pieces
swing from leaps of stars and branches
dispatched as planets scudding our futures forward
in a showering distance from chilled memory
of dust storms in a lost minute of restless wind
shielded night.
Stepping back from the aspens and snow
the sun disrobed in memory of what nature promises
from each surprised dawn autumn springs out of its apple harvest
when the aromas deepest breaths wraps a landscaped marsh
after a fine rain swept the dry common ground
watering bulbs and thistle
when blackbirds flitter by first light butterflies
on maple and oak awakening the sea
from dark perfection.


B.Z. Niditch is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and teacher. His work is widely published in journals and magazines throughout the world, including: Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art; The Literary Review; Denver Quarterly; Hawaii Review; Le Guepard (France); Kadmos (France); Prism International; Jejune (Czech Republic); Leopold Bloom (Budapest); Antioch Review; and Prairie Schooner, among others. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.