When the whole of the sky
is beside me, and all live things
are clearing away,
I run through the small
valleys of sand searching.
Time to time I dare
myself to race the sun
and when I think
I am in the lead,
I see my shadow ahead
pacing me step for step,
already in the blue hour,
around my shoulders
like a shawl.
Flash between wake and sleep,
sound of a proud man passing,
one turn of the body
and there it is.
How you send me
deep into forgetting—
where I am, what I want,
the name of someone I love.
•••
All poems are published in Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree, 2010)
•••
Christian Campbell is the author of Running the Dusk, which was a finalist for the Cave Canem Prize and is currently shortlisted for the 2010 Forward Poetry Prize for the Best First Book in the UK, and a recipient of a Lannan Residency Fellowship. He teaches at the University of Toronto.
tongues of the ocean 