Perseid Meteor Shower, August
by Tim Myers
The papers say the Chinese knew them first,
three years after the death of the one called Christ.
They make me want to speak. I grope for theme,
finding only a resonance of dream.
One blurs past, its yellow-white of sun
an instant's glow this side of oblivion.
I scratch for a poem. It's discontent I feel
while space is grassland flared with asphodel.
Copyright © 1996, Tim Myers
Perseid Meteor
Courtesy of John Walker
Tim Myers won a national poetry contest judged by John Updike, has published over 100 poems (Southern Humanities Review, MacGuffin, Green Fuse, ELF, national anthologies), and has a chapbook coming out from Pecan Grove Press. His children's book Basho and the Fox was read on NPR, made the New York Times bestseller list for children's books, and was honored by Smithsonian Magazine, The Children's Book Council, and Bank Street College. He has three new children's books coming out. He teaches at Santa Clara University in the Bay Area.