R. Nemo Hill
We Saw It
It will change to fill all the spaces.
(Paul Eluard)
There was only one window in the kitchen—
and even before its glass panes were shattered,
the wind could touch our faces.
Don't be ridiculous.
There was nothing to stop us children
from dragging any available chair or box
over to that wall, the one wall that truly opened,
and clambering up for even a partial glimpse of the river
flowing, murderous,
in the distance behind the cook's back.
They've been gone for over a hundred years.
We saw it in winter—frozen silver.
We were paralyzed.
We see it in summer—shallow, yellow, almost drained by drought.
We are insatiable.
And the dead don't return.
Bio
R. Nemo Hill is the author of an illustrated novel in collaboration with painter Jeanne Hedstrom, Pilgrim's Feather (Quantuck Lane Press, 2002), a narrative poem based upon a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, The Strange Music of Erich Zann (Hippocampus Press, 2004), and a chapbook, Prolegomena To An Essay On Satire (Modern Metrics, 2006). Editor of EXOT BOOKS (www.exot.typepad.com/exotbooks), his poetry and fiction have appeared in various print and online journals including Poetry, Smartish Pace, Soundzine, Big City Lit, Autumn Sky, Chimaera, Umbrella, Ambit, and American Arts Quarterly. He lives in New York City, but travels frequently to Southeast Asia. His travel blog, Elsewhere, can be accessed at www.rnemohill.typepad.com.