Pantoum: Gateway to the Sun

Issue 12 Poetry

BY Saramanda Swigart

Bab al shams means “gateway to the sun”
But the moon is emperor of this wilderness
A sere desert will thirst for her lost loved one
Heat drives senses dizzy like a terrible kiss

The moon is an emperor in this wilderness
We stood at the edge of a reflecting pool
Heat drives senses dizzy like a tentative kiss
Moon drunk in the sky—its amber a jewel

We stood at the edge of the reflecting pool
Ourselves above and our topaz selves below
Moon fat in the sky, its amber a jewel
Dimmed—in the water—its own afterglow

Ourselves above and our topaz selves below
I grow toward a calm that won’t ever come back
Dimmed in the water, our own afterglow
Further dims in my memory, a slow fade to black

I grow toward a moment that will never come back
A sere desert will thirst for her lost loved one
But he dims in her memory, a slow fade to black
Though Bab al shams means “gateway to the sun”

Saramanda Swigart has a BA in postcolonial literature and an MFA in writing and literary translation from Columbia University. Her short work, essays, and poetry have appeared in Oxford Magazine, Superstition Review, The Alembic, Fogged Clarity, Ghost Town, The Saranac Review, and Euphony to name a few. She has been teaching literature, creative writing, and argumentative writing and critical thinking at City College of San Francisco since 2014.
Image Credit: “Shift IV Triptych” Catherine Eaton Skinner