A Death (After Tu Fu)
The night is bottomless.
I can’t sleep. Darkness
smells of winter. Stars
fade away, beyond my reach,
like waves on a distant beach.
In mockery the polestar
dies last of all.
My wine bottle is empty.
I can only bow my head.
My words have all been said.
Tomorrow I will walk
the cemetery’s frozen ground,
and weep for the loss
of my newly dead.
George Freek‘s poetry has appeared in numerous poetry journals and reviews, most recently The Ottawa Arts Review; Acumen; North of Oxford; The Lake; Triggerfish and Torrid Literature.