A Meeting on Waterways

By MARC VINCENZ

It seems all the light of morning
has descended here where it’s usually dark

and frogs raise their heads in the bulrushes,
where the last sounds swarm among the oaks.

Weighing these few scraps, the things you’ve said
you leapt gardens to procure—there are still

more feathers on this side—hard work,
all that feather versus fodder. Tomorrow—

what a difficult word—interrupted and intercepted;
and tomorrow, all that we imagined.

Careful.

The universe has ears.

 

[Purchase Issue 30 here.]

 

Marc Vincenz is a multilingual translator, poet, fiction writer, journalist, editor, musician, and artist. His recent poetry collections include The Pearl Diver of Irunmani, A Splash of Cave Paint, The King of Prussia is Drunk on Stars, Faery Ecology, and (forthcoming in 2026) No More Animal Poems. He translates from the German, Romanian, French, and Spanish.

From the beginning, The Common has brought you transportive writing and exciting new voices. We are committed to supporting writers and maintaining free, unrestricted access to our website, but we can’t do it without you. Become an integral part of our global community of readers and writers by donating today. No amount is too small. Thank you!

A Meeting on Waterways

Related Posts

Supermarketing

LAUREN DELAPENHA
For example, the last time I asked God / to kill me I was among the lemons, remembering // the preacher saying, God is a God who is able / to hunger. I wonder, // aren’t we all here for that fast / communion of a stranger reaching // for the same hydroponic melon? 

Red Cadillac interior.

Jesus’ Body Found Outside Ice Cream Parlor in Black Suburb 

STEFAN BINDLEY-TAYLOR
His left wrist dangled out the half-wound-down glass of a boxy brown Cadillac with red felt seats. Flies drifted in and out. He had a dip top cone in his hand. The place was famous for them. You’d think it would be melting in the heat, but the molten chocolate shell held

Headshot of Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Nocturne for Dark Things

AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL
One of the marvels of my life— / an alphabet. A whole green and mossy / world can be made and remade / from just twenty-six dark curlicues. / Here’s more dark: sometimes birds sleep / tucked under a giraffe’s dusky armpit / and sometimes fungi fatten only at night.