for Matt

 

1.

Tonight, on YouTube, cable, and satellite,

there’s a secret channel, where clouds above

the Sahelian droughts outlast your pessimism.

The moonlit rains on the Tunisian plains

will craft a jeweller’s dream—a diamond

torrent before the desert sands reveal

their gold.

 

2.

The California redwoods bless the earth

tonight—invisible as gravity.

Cities balanced on their limbs, our wars

on their capacity to breathe. They guard

our beds tonight, our thankless, private gods.

A sapling roots within their soil, and gathers

acolytes.

 

3.

Tonight, there’s no commercial pause—

a towhee by your window obeys the laws

                                                of flight.

 

4.

The laws of light illuminate New York

tonight: Being fashioned into being.

The report tonight: poetry is news

that stays beautiful. A miracle that words

hold meaning beneath their musical.

(In Gaza children dance tonight.

     (But only for tonight.))

---

Yusuf Saadi‘s writing has appeared in journals including the Malahat Review, Grain, Vallum, PRISM, Prairie Fire, and untethered. His debut chapbook, Sonnets on a Night Without Love, was published by Vallum last year.