Nostos

In the wings

By Steven Deutsch

Nostos

It was on the rise

behind the blueberry bushes,

blue-black with fruit.

I don’t know

what drew me there

since my bucket was full,

but a small stone

stairway made its

way up the rise.

I imagine a homestead

once stood above—

but could find no trace.

I took the stairs

up then down

then up again

calling out, “honey

I’m home,”

echoes died to stillness—

a quiet

that predated man’s

invention of time,

as I sat on the top

step in the late

morning sun,

feasting on berries

and daydreaming

of home.

In the Wings

Slight and subtle

like a breeze

from the west

that presages

a storm,

it reminds me

of the mortality

of the seasons

with little truths

that confound

the senses.

So, so ordinary

that they are

not.

Today, I find

an elm leaf

in my hair—

gray and desiccated

yet once a lively green.

It has been

in the night air

far too long.

Breeze stronger

now and the sky

like eggshell—

soon, so soon.

Steve Deutsch has been widely published both on line and in print. Steve was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. He is poetry editor for Centered Magazine. His Chapbook, Perhaps You Can, was published in 2019 by Kelsay Press. His full length book, Persistence of Memory was published in 2020 by Kelsay, Steve’s third book of poetry, Going, Going, Gone, was published in November 2021.