Poetry from Eric Roller

Photo: Susan Q Yin

Late Night Semantics

Imagine this,
I say to your back,
as you fall
asleep tonight:
Everything in this
world struggles.
Borneo elephants and
cutthroat eels,
black bean aphids and
carpenter ants,
sand oak trees
and spear thistle;
prokaryotes and
Aristotle once
upon a time.

This marriage,
I say under
pillow

Your reply
dies there
in the space
between us:
Doesn’t the house
need painting?
after I thought sleep
had taken you.
.

.
Eric Roller is an educator who lives in DeLand, FL. His other poems can be read in The Chestnut Review and The South Dakota Review.