As every evening,
twilight sets sail.
I unlatch the shutters
and lean out. For an hour,
I voyage with the clouds.
They trundle across the ocean,
slowly at first, then faster
and faster. Top-heavy
with rain, they run aground
on the shoals of night.
They rip apart, flatten
like pages smeared with ink.
I forget what they said, what
I read, except for the words:
The moonrise is far away—
and the sunrise, farther still.
Hoyt Rogers is a writer and translator. He translates from the French, German, Italian, and Spanish. He has published many books; he has contributed poetry, fiction, essays, and translations to a wide variety of periodicals. His edition of Yves Bonnefoy’s Rome, 1630 received the 2021 Translation Prize from the French-American Foundation.
