Sonnet for Floating

I was between the diamonds of the earth’s moisture 
floating on a raft     on a lake     and I had fallen
into a dream where everything kept disappearing 
until I was surrounded by nothing but sky     and then
in my dream     I realized that the sky was in fact 
a mirror image of some other sky     or some other 
blueness     everything was so pure     and I kept floating
through the pureness     I knew that I was only a visitor
here     and up ahead was a rocky shoreline     it was
almost like the beginning of a new religion     I felt
the need to burn candles     forcing their waxen shafts
into the smooth forgiving soil to hold them upright
waiting for the sadness of the time to lead me on     lead me
into a new day     into that particular specificity of light. 

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Poet and songwriter Paul Ilechko lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. He is the author of several chapbooks. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including The Night Heron Barks, Feral Journal, K’in, Gargoyle Magazine, and Book of Matches. His first album, “Meeting Points”, was released in 2021.  

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