Lamp, you are an enchanting one
A hideous one besides
Your tortoiseshell exterior shines
Against the stark reason of morning
And complements even the silkiest afternoons
Causing one to comment, how precious
And another to explain, I can hardly bear it
Or I wish it were mine
The gemstones encrusted on your shade
Supposedly found in catacombs
Are the kind given to mothers
When I leave, you are still on
Ethel Rackin‘s first collection, The Forever Notes, is forthcoming in Parlor Press’ Free Verse Editions series in the fall of 2012. Her poems have appeared in Colorado Review, Court Green, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She earned an MFA from Bard College and PhD in English Literature from Princeton University and is currently Assistant Professor of Language and Literature at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania.
*Photo courtesy of Dalton Rowe.