"An Equation" by Seth Jani

An Equation

Suppose in the thicket of night-blooming branches
a goodness came, altering the landscape
at its darkest point. And everything
in their multiple kingdoms were born together
into a second valley, where the duplicate moon
was not a mirror of borrowed radiance
but flamed its own inward-treading light,
and the colossal losses which greed and ignorance
visited upon the earth were suddenly rent from the equation,
leaving the impossible mathematics strewn across the table
like the luminous charcoal of crushed stars
or the scattered nimbus from a butterfly’s wings.

Seth Jani

Seth Jani lives in Seattle, WA and is the founder of Seven CirclePress (www.sevencirclepress.com). Their work has appeared in The American Poetry Journal, Chiron Review, Rust+Moth and Pretty Owl Poetry, among others. Their full-length collection, Night Fable, was published by FutureCycle Press in 2018. More about them and their work can be found at www.sethjani.com.

Headshot: Ann Jani

Photo Credit: Staff