Seth Jani
There is an obelisk
in Southern California
that can only be found
at certain angles
of moonlight and silence,
that can only be touched
with a buckskin knife
or freezing hand.
I found it one summer
when I was hunting
a dry spirit
hoping to revive my life
with the inverse gift of deserts.
It shined like a black lake
in someone’s pupil,
like a lost horizon
in a faded eye.
It stood alone
in the mauve-colored hills.
No animals stirred around it.
I remember it
the way I remember
certain monsters of childhood,
always there at the edge
beyond proof or reason.
Seth Jani is a poet, publisher and bartender in Seattle, WA. His work has appeared in The American Poetry Journal, Chiron Review, Ghost City Review, Rust+Moth and Phantom Drift, among others. His most recent full-length collection, Field Music, was published by FutureCycle Press in 2023. Visit him at www.sethjani.com.