Rob Shapiro

January Refrain

 

Once, I wanted to live as elegy lives— 

suffused with ragweed and starlight, 

 

whatever debris a pond will savor.

Back then, I didn’t understand my grief

 

was shaped like the open air

caught between scattershots of crows— 

 

I didn’t understand sunlight goes on 

this way forever: golden fingers 

 

tracing the crystal ground, as if trying

to reach us in this life and the next.

Rob Shapiro received his MFA from the University of Virginia, where he was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize. His poetry has recently appeared in AGNI, The Southern Review, Ecotone, Michigan Quarterly Review, and The Missouri Review Online, and he has received the Edward Stanley Award from Prairie Schooner, as well as third place in Narrative's 30 Below Contest.