Derek Ellis

Pastoral with My Shepherd

 It’s very good to work in the last light, because you can see clearly
the things that catch the light most.
- Alberto Giacometti

Mist-filled, the field left notes
to wash my feet in the oils
of wild grasses, to wade back
into the sleeping garden where
time flattens; a disc of light hung
in the sky. There is no more time.
The sun sets like the brow of an
owl winking above a burrow. Lord
let me die in a dream, let me live in
life: an empty branch tapping stained-
glass renders an aria of worship, was
only ever worship. What is it we do
to ourselves, lord? I’ll bow down as
a field mouse to the maw of an owl’s
claw. I’ll refract the last hour’s light,
grasp the lumens like a buck blade
thin as flame—I’ll hum a killing hymn.  

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Derek Ellis was raised in the small, rural town of Owenton, Kentucky. He holds a B.A. in English Literature from Western Kentucky University and an M.F.A in Poetry from the University of Maryland, where he taught courses in creative and academic writing. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English with a creative dissertation at SUNY Binghamton. His work has appeared in Academy of American Poets, Action Spectacle, BODY, Five Points, Leavings, Prairie Schooner and Waxwing.