Richard King Perkins II

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Transfiguration

Black ground eats the light of every expression
in this ungratified November night. We watch the dissipation
of vapor and mist, endearing darkness further to itself,
betraying the tranquility of nocturnal harvest, the lunatic
scraps of this moment fighting to keep their particular bearing.
In this nearness, I measure the asymmetry of your features
with my own, revealed by a sudden and gradual intrusion of
amber, a different time of a different year, tresses of tangible
air igniting the pores of our skin, and even so, we maintain
that we are the uniqueness of our own transparency. And
because this feels like shared togetherness, we embrace, sliding
through and past each other into other seasons, other countries,
knowing less of each other than we would have ever believed.
I thought I understood the dialect of your mouth, your vision,
the unbearable absence of your regard, the countenance of
roots and persona of a river’s delta, but I’m just a memory
of myself, and you, an imitation of even that. How bittersweet
is this plunder of air, this vacancy of clouds, the unavoidable
transfiguring from then into now?

Richard King Perkins II is a state-sponsored advocate for residents in long-term care facilities. He lives in Huntley, IL, with his wife, Vickie and daughter, Sage. He is a ten-time Pushcart, Best of the Net and Best of the Web nominee whose work has appeared in more than fifteen hundred publications including The Louisiana Review, Plainsongs, Texas Review, Hawai’i Review, Roanoke Review, Sugar House Review and The William and Mary Review. His poem “Grease Poet” was a prize winner of the Woodrow Hall award for enduring excellence. His poem "Nemesis” received the Songs of Eretz Editor's Choice award.