17 Dec A Poem for the Solstice

COMPASS

There’s a lost south in me, a place where joy,
though costly, was a common middle name.
Tomorrow, there, had elsewhere stayed today,
solstices changed places, nothing was the same.
There at the world’s edge, the antipodes,
with all the stars and seasons rearranged,
earth’s axis seemed to shift and gravity’s
force drew me in. My latitudes since then have changed.
A lost love, like a phantom limb, gestures
emptily, making itself felt through pain.
So ached this south in me for many years.
But the world is round, and the lost self was regained
once, seeking my own south, I ventured forth
in due course, with due diligence, due north.

“Compass” is from Dark Matter: New Poems by Robin Morgan, published earlier this year in the United States and the Commonwealth by Spinifex Press. Copyright 2018 by Robin Morgan. This blog will return on January 14, 2019.