Midsummer's Eve I draw no conclusions in porchlight. With fence and lawn and neighbors abstracted by the night, we sit beneath swayed boughs. With fence and lawn and neighbors, all that meaning dropped away. We sit beneath swayed boughs, still minds transfixed by beauty All that meaning dropped away. The tree like us, composed, still; minds transfixed by beauty: five leaves and five leaves and five. The tree like us is composed as the vision is unfurled: Five leaves and five leaves and five, whose patterns adorn my world. As the vision is unfurled, slim-stemmed topaz and rubies whose patterns adorn my world are suspended beneath the trees. Slim-stemmed topaz and rubies, abstracted by the night, are suspended beneath the trees. I draw no conclusions in porchlight.
Carolyn Ostrander, a freelance transliterator for the Deaf, lives in central New York. Her poems have appeared in The Comstock Review, (she is currently an editor) and Monday Night Poetry Anthology 2006. With degrees in linguistics and composition/rhetoric, she researches and writes about disability rhetorics, suffrage and nineteenth-century rural women.
