Jane Ellen Glasser

 
Two Truths I Know

Tossed confetti
soon smudges underfoot
and the drooling maws
of hunger die in a feast
because nothing lasts.

When pleasure peaks
I plummet, but
in the clutches of pain
I watch the clock
because the only
constant is change.

Ask a perfect peach
about tomorrow,
ask storm clouds
about permanence,
ask splintered glass
about mending.

Even the beautiful accident
of living gets used up.
 

What There Is

There is the hunger
of a gaping grave
earth won’t satisfy.

There is a thirst
like the Atacama Desert’s
torrents cannot slake.

There is the emptiness
of a mammoth cave
eternity would not fill.

There is the longing
of a hummingbird
in a garden of silk flowers.

There is you, there is me
pulling on the reins
of our runaway lives.
 

Jane Ellen Glasser has appeared in journals such as Georgia Review, Hudson Review, and Southern Review. Her eighth collection is Jane Ellen Glasser: Selected Works (2019). website