I Cannot Name Him

by Kimberly Kolbe

I know him by despair,
know his truck is the truck

that levels the trees I know him
late at night in bed, dark lake—

one great eye opening suddenly.

I awaken in the ink-fleck to the call
of my name and find no one there—

stuck breath, echoed third—
air static, staccato, disturbed.

 

Kimberly Kolbe is poetry co-editor of Third Coast and assistant editor of New Issues Poetry & Prose. She is an MFA candidate at Western Michigan University. Her chapbook, the deaf cow dreams of song, was published in 2001 by Humble Hills Press. (4/2007)