there is a yearning humming wave in every city

composed of all its parts

comforting and quieting a certain

deep seated fear of silence

even at night

the drones of distant tires

slapping endless pavement

darkly reflecting the streetlights

or electric boxes  buzzing or

humming  selling or singing

waft through an open

bedroom window

where you lie with your

body or your leg or your

finger gently resting against

the soft skin of the one

who comforts and quiets

a certain deep seated fear

of a different sort

Zoe Keithley is a poet, fiction writer and writing workshop leader from Chicago now living in Sacramento. She has a Master of Arts  in the Teaching of Writing from Columbia College, Chicago, is a Pushcart nominee, and founding member of the Chicago poetry ensemble World Enough & Time. Her poetry has appeared in Light Messenger, Sleeping with Dionysus, the National Poetry Anthology, Hyphen Magazine, and  Sacramento Poetry Center Anthologies 2014 & 2015. Her poetry collection, Crow Song, was published here by Sacramento’s Roan Press. Zoe is also a fiction writer & leader of fiction workshops here at the Poetry Center. Her first novel, The Calling of Mother Adelli, about a teacher with a student she cannot handle appeared on Amazon in 2014. The second novel, A Gathering Back, is expected out around Christmas and the New Year.

Morning Light

Leaf tips raised to fire.
The familiar breeze, like a cat
brushes the marked green spears.
Clusters of infant fruit
shine female under the brooding canopy.
Behind them, the thick trunk gnarls upward
mounted by the ravening ivy.
My own yearning rushes out to meet me.
The beloved is everywhere.