Starlight and Frogs by Steve Klepetar

Here by the river we watch boats go down.

They are sailing through night, candle-lit, 

music welling toward us on the high banks.

Down on the water, boys row, 

girls in their dresses sing to starlight and frogs. 

Who are we, so close to this tattered veil, 

drifting in the wind? 

Along dark river skin, torchlight shines.

Who has called us here from a far country,

traveling all day through cities and grime?

We have come with our tongues buried in ice.

Who are we that our eyes must witness and burn?

Steve Klepetar has recently relocated to the Berkshires in Massachusetts after 36 years in Minnesota. His work has received several nominations for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize, including three in 2017. Recent collections include A Landscape in Hell (Flutter Press), How Fascism Comes to America (Locofo Chaps), and Why Glass Shatters (One Sentence Chaps).