Psalm

by Wim Coleman

How long will you leave me
here and alone in this dark room
where I have passed these untold ages?
I do not ask for an open door
nor that you to turn my wings
naked against the unbounded wind.

I could be satiate and happy
and know no other home throughout my days
if you would only let me brighten this place
with riches already harbored here.
For yours is the darkness that casts light,
and light is the world without words.

The mirth of topaz shall be my morning star,
the kindness of amber my dawn,
the flirtation of pearls my moonlight,
the jealousy of sapphires my aurora borealis.
The dome of my cosmos shall be lined
with the silence of silver leaf.

All this and more may be my portion;
all I need is a match and a flick of my wrist.

Wim Coleman is a playwright, poet, novelist, and nonfiction writer. His play The Shackles of Liberty won the 2016 Southern Playwrights Competition. His poetry has been published in SOL: English Writing in Mexico, The Opiate, Dissenting Voice, Tuck Magazine, and Vita Brevis. Novels that he has co-authored with his wife, Pat Perrin, include Anna’s World, the Silver Medalist in the 2008 Moonbeam Awards, and The Jamais Vu Papers, a 2011 finalist for the Eric Hoffer / Montaigne Medal. Wim and Pat lived for fourteen years in Mexico, where they created and administered a scholarship program for at-risk students. Blog: playsonideas.wordpress.com.