by Jeff Morgan
or rather
reflected,
similar to early American writers,
the light of life
and can never break free,
become independent,
but the planet’s reaction
this night in the Dry Tortugas,
where if one looks at the stars long enough
the sky and the sea blend together,
is to extend a narrow beam,
creating a walkway across the water
to itself and another world.
No writer,
free to roam the universe of imagination,
could hope to do more,
for Jupiter’s art has no intent;
there is no internal source for the art,
only reflection, a setting, and an audience,
me,
who no longer wishes to be a god
to be a god.
Jeff Morgan, an English professor at Lynn University, is the author of three books, most recently, American Comic Poetry (McFarland, 2015). He is also the author of numerous essays and poems, this latest poem, “Jupiter shone,” resulting from a Dry Tortugas camping trip with an old friend.