Peter Grandbois

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Dear Silence

We exist as if everything was half way
to something else

Like a skein of geese heading south

Or the taffy pull of summer stretching
to fall

As if the world could let slip
this monster of night that crawls

through lovers like a god                                   
I mean a dog licking its paws

I’d call you in if I could
hold this slight season

I’d ask if you whisper in awed
grammar like I do

or if you touch your cheek
as a lover might

Will you grant me a place
behind the commas
of your eyes    

A safe harbor in the moon’s
outsized glaze,

The half-phrase that cries                   
through raven’s throat—

I want to be
the shiver of sky

that falls between
your lips

Peter Grandbois is the author of sixteen books, the most recent of which is Story of a Pilgrim (Tiger Bark Press, 2026). He is poetry editor at Boulevard and teaches at Denison University in Ohio. You can find him at www.petergrandbois.com.