Author’s Note: This is an Ekphrastic poem, which is a fancy way of saying inspired by a piece of art. This poem was inspired by Monet’s melancholy painting, The Port of Le Havre, Effect of Night, 1867. What struck me about this painting was that amidst the thick gloom, there were a few red lights that pulled me toward them. I tried to conjure the feeling of when a relationship ends and the tension between the hope of rekindling, the reality of loss, and the angst of feeling stuck there forever.
Étude in the Key of Flight by Kari Ebert
after indecipherable cocteau twins’ lyrics
electric words in dreams are never stable
a cherry flavored hum makes
its own mistakes to be fly enough
to grow wings & glide through
tiger-teeth to be fly enough
to swallow a song and wear it
on my breast red-hearted and watchful
like so many parts of my self avian
delicate hobbled or broken
still able to modulate in wind
consider the expanse of my wings
horizontal like the dead in a pocket
of time a long love-line of offerings
to a solitary gull floating lonely
upon each wave & each un-wave of your sea
some wishes elude me like your secrets
which pulse the green vibrato-rush
of cicadas tremolo rising through membrane
deafening thrum of resuscitations
is this then my voice like a prayer in a cave
I wait for any sign to emerge any oracle’s call
once opened my chest offers up
its ghosts to the sky vellum-sheathed
and void I release my grip
on longing fall backwards into myself
wings heart throat & spine
Award winning writer, Kari Ann Ebert’s writing has been published in journals such as Night Heron Barks, Free State Review, Philadelphia Stories, Gargoyle, and The Ekphrastic Review, among others. The former Poetry & Interview Editor of The Broadkill Review, Kari’s honors include fellowships from BOAAT Press and Brooklyn Poets, as well as an Individual Artist Fellowship in poetry from Delaware Division of the Arts. She teaches zine and creative writing workshops and can be found writing impromptu poetry on her vintage typewriter at community events. Her chapbook Alphabet of Mo(u)rning can be found on her website kariannebert.com.
