I am glad today is dark. No sun. Sky
ribboning with amorphous, complicated
layers. I prefer cumulus on my
morning beach run. What more can we worry
about? Our parents are getting older
and money is running out. The children
are leaving, the new roof is damaged by
rain and rot. I fear the thrashing of the sea
in its unrest, the unforgiving cricket.
But that's not it. The current is rising.
The dramas are playing out. Perhaps
it's better to be among these sandpipers
with quick feet dashing out of the surf than
a person who wishes to feel complete.


About this poem
"'Mourning Nocturne' is part of a 13-part sonnet sequence inspired by a summer spent in a beach town. The sequence is called 'American Comedy' and is about the absurdities and realities of modern domestic life."
-Jill Bialosky

About Jill Bialosky
Jill Bialosky is the author of "The Players," forthcoming from Knopf in 2015. She is an editor at W.W. Norton & Company and lives in New York City.

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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2014 Jill Bialosky. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org.
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