Tim Suermondt
Priorities
At night the park is half lit—
blame it on the city
for not making up its mind.
The moon seems to prefer
the lighted side, hovering over it
with an almost mathematical precision—
what prefers the darkness, I wonder.
I’ve contemplated leaving the apartment
and going for a look, many times,
but there’s always been a reason
to pass, like getting my sleep tonight
so I’m refreshed to finish the poem—
the one that’s threatened to leave if I don’t.
Vienna Pears
The fog is losing its battle
with the sunshine, the great lawn
surrounding the castle inn
springing forth on a rug of green.
A young boy and I sit on a bench,
watching and listening to a man
playing on a clavichord, a slow piece
perfecting matching the metronome
of the day, the Vienna pears calmly
hanging from the tree above us.
I can live in any age that wants me
but our age is the only one I want.
Books and the MRI
My future doesn’t know
if it’s coming or going,
a lot like my life.
But my brain and I remain
calm, let the technology
do what it must.
I see a beautiful metropolis
surrounded by fields
of books, and separate pages
delicate as the leaves.
I stumble a bit
with the books, as many
as I can carry. A voice says
“We’re almost through”
as a noisy beep diminishes
and I put down the books,
for a minute, looking around
for one of mine.
Tim Suermondt’s sixth full-length book of poems A Doughnut And The Great Beauty Of The World came out in 2023 from MadHat Press. He has published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Stand Magazine, Smartish Pace, The Fortnightly Review, Poet Lore and Plume, among many others. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.