Issue 2.2        Summer-Autumn 2006
 

Three Pieces 
poems by Tara Zafft & images by Nicolas Genty

 

Summer's End and Pigeons Taking the Sun (Prague 1992)

The sad sweetness of summer's end

pushing at the chest

with its cold and heavy fist

wishing,

to close the eyes and inhale

the last few moments of heat

warm skin, peeling paint

dry dust kicked up

from the street below

and pigeons cooing on the window sill

lazy afternoons of drinking sweet tea

and eating fresh dill by the handful

long walks in the park

and that first kiss, with tear-filled eyes

already perceiving

that each delight must end

 

Shadows and Through the Windows of the Cloister, Vezelay Basilica (Summer 2005)

 I want none of your light

and your pillars keeping you planted

let me drift

here in the shadows

tiptoeing through alleyways

dancing in the rain

catching moonbeams

in my fingers

soaring with the wind

let me laugh and weep

and wait

for the next breath

here in the shadows

I want none of your light

 

Forgetting and In Novy Svet, the New World (Prague, 1992)

 Forgetting, for just one moment

the flat grayness of monotony

the duties and responsibilities

inherited, absorbed

and selfishly devouring

the last few drops of sunlight

and car horns and screams and fumes

beyond,

part of a dream unrealized yet real enough

to touch one's cheek

and feel the delicate touch of the sun

 

Copyright 2006 by Tara Zafft and Nicolas Genty. All rights reserved.

Tara Zafft is a poet residing in San Francisco with her husband and three children. Her work has appeared in numerous publications.  Nicolas Genty was born in Paris; has traveled to Germany, Prague, and Holland among other places for his photography; and now lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife and three children.  His photographs have been exhibited in Houston and Austin.