John Schneider

Interrupting Darkness

Mid-way through the starless night
in the way stark Kanji brushstrokes

transcend simple contrasts, easy beauty,
the illusion of meaning, the heavens tonight

collapse into a wide empty runway, another
flightless bird, as a pale moon briefly indigoes

the lake’s unbroken surface. A moment of witness.
Of clarity. What is known to exist exists in translation.

As certainty gracefully dissolves into paint and canvas
and our bodies’ touching again again makes sense.

John Schneider lives in Berkeley, California. His debut collection, Swallowing the Light, is forthcoming in 2022 from Kelsay Books. His work has been published in The Worcester Review, Tampa Review,The Inflectionist Review, The American Journal of Poetry, California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology, and elsewhere. His poetry has been a Merit Award winner in the Atlanta Review 2021 International Poetry Competition He is also a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee.