A Poem by David Olsen

Watts, 1965

Bernoulli's lift suspends me above
the south side of The Angels.
Among pinpricks in the black-and-white
August night,

here and there clumps of light
sprout like bunchgrasses
after first rain, spread as if
by rhizomes.

In the black-on-black view below,
wisps of smoke obscure in turn
winking streetlamps as flames erupt
ever closer.

Will intemperate winds
of The Fire Next Time assail
the forbidden gates of my
white home?

David Olsen's Unfolding Origami (80pp. 2015) won the Cinnamon Press Poetry Collection Award.  Poetry chapbooks from US publishers include Sailing to Atlantis (2013), New World Elegies (2011), and Greatest Hits (2001).  His work appears in leading journals and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic.  A poet and professionally produced playwright with a BA in chemistry from University of California-Berkeley and an MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University.  David was formerly an energy economist, management consultant, and performing arts critic.  He has lived in Oxford England since 2002.