Peter Grandbois

To light the hidden things

 
There is a door
inside the stone
in your pocket
where it’s okay
to be lost, to
become again
some lesser thing.
Take the first step
along the crippled
lip and listen
to the barbed note
rising, rising
like a catfish.
We are standing
in the river.

Peter Grandbois is the author of thirteen books, the most recent of which is the Snyder prize-winning, Last Night I Aged a Hundred Years (Ashland Poetry Press 2021). His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in over one hundred journals. His plays have been nominated for several New York Innovative Theatre Awards and have been performed in St. Louis, Columbus, Los Angeles, and New York. He is poetry editor at Boulevard magazine and teaches at Denison University in Ohio. You can find him at www.petergrandbois.com.