Noon Rising
Rodney Nelson
I could see it in light of the navy
though it went up and away from water
the men waited on the wharf
to get a
bus to the plane and memories of birth
and midnight drill were in the seabag now
they had emerged on the world
deck to bright-
gray turret and tower and entered the
command overhead with tinted lenses
I would see it below the
tropic on
a vacant white esplanade and again
from prairie that garnered it at sunstead
but when did I ever see
it reach the
high midpoint of my own light’s only day
between nonentity and nonbeing
I could see it in light of the navy
though it went up and away from water
the men waited on the wharf
to get a
bus to the plane and memories of birth
and midnight drill were in the seabag now
they had emerged on the world
deck to bright-
gray turret and tower and entered the
command overhead with tinted lenses
I would see it below the
tropic on
a vacant white esplanade and again
from prairie that garnered it at sunstead
but when did I ever see
it reach the
high midpoint of my own light’s only day
between nonentity and nonbeing