Is there time enough
for endless love?
I wonder in the dark.
And I wonder that the dark
was once mother of my fears
held at bay by too bright nightlights.
Because tonight, without light,
she breathes warm in the darkness
and my breath answers, endless
as the dark. Endless as my love
which wants nothing but more time
next to her in the dark.
___
Mark J. Mitchell studied writing at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock, and Barbara Hull. His work has appeared in various periodicals over the last thirty-five years, as well as the anthologies Good Poems, American Places, Hunger Enough, and Line Drives. His chapbook, Three Visitors, will be published by Negative Capability Press later this year and his novels, The Magic War and Knight Prisoner will be published in the coming months. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the documentarian and film maker Joan Juster. Currently he’s seeking gainful employment since poets are born and not paid.