Morgan Eklund

Apologies to my Mother before my 28th Birthday

I am sorry that I am the sound of a shadow—
            I am the word, sadness.

I am sorry that light doesn’t empty out from me
            when other girls are so much light—

I am sorry, I stand just outside
            of the light.

I am sorry—I feel
            like the allegory of a cave

I am sorry the sun is incomprehensible
            and I’m lost in my human condition.
 

Thirteen

This—is how far away from my father
I feel tonight.
I am still thirteen.
I am thirteen years away from him.
He is thirteen years younger.

There—we haven’t aged a moment.
We are in between my brain and desire—
between expanding universes.
We are luminous.
Like the meridian.
Like hieroglyphics.

Not shadows on a wall.
Not shadows looking for peace.
 

Morgan Eklund has poems in the The Louisville Review, North American Review, and Whiskey Island. She recently received an Emerging Artist Award from the Kentucky Arts Council. website