George Eklund—Beyond the Ellipse

The jets made their marks above us

The oceans swelled in the future of our

Crippled smiles

In the city the opera went broke

Only to be reborn in some kid’s head

Asleep in a rented room

With a shaved leg and a swollen breast

We hold our bandaged hands close

To our chests as we sleep

Turned from the alley echo

Frightened of the invisible hand

That caresses the face

And shakes us from sleep

What of the rain on other planets

Every creature adrift in its own biology

The world is the mind and will not let go

Claiming itself

In the extremes of hellish beauty

In a world of innocent thieves

Cities awaken in the falsehood of the boulevard,

Abstracted beyond the ellipse

That keeps returning us to the pictures

We hold in our hands,

Arias whispered into our minds.

George Eklund

George Eklund is Emeritus Professor at Morehead State University. Eklund has published widely in North American journals, including The American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crazyhorse, Cimarron Review, Epoch, The Iowa Review, The Massachusetts Review, The New Ohio Review, The North American Review and Willow Springs, among others. Most recently his poems have appeared in The Lindenwood Review, Poetry Fix, Red Booth Review, and Rio Grande Review, as well as The Heartland Review, Descant, Redactions, and Adelaide.

Eklund’s full length volumes include The Island Blade (ABZ Press 2011) and Each Breath I Cannot Hold (Wind Publications 2011). Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, Wanting To Be an Element, in 2012, and his recent collection, Altar, in September 2019.