Sweet Night Song   

by Judy Katz-Levine

Never to leave the plum tree and always to

breathe the stark chill of autumn night.

Because I will live until 110 ride an

intense wave of glory. An ocean wave of

aqua and strands of red seaweed. I became

sober. Became stern as in the way

we see a film of a war scene and don't

tell anyone. There's this woman who

is saving my life over and over again.

The flutes dance in a room where

Neruda swears and drinks Chilean red

wine. I am not to be undone. Am

to wear stark white, and stark

black and shirts flowering with

coleus. Never to leave this earth.

A piñata of clouds will

burst, raining down blessings of a 

sweet night song.

* * * * *

Judy Katz-Levine, judykatzlevine.weebly.com/, is an internationally published poet whose two full-length collections include Ocarina and When The Arms Of Our Dreams Embrace. Her chapbook, When Performers Swim, The Dice Are Cast, was published in 2009 by Ahadada. A new full-length collection, The Everything Saint, will be published by WordTech in August of 2018. Her poems have appeared recently in Salamander, Blue Unicorn, Constellations, Peacock Anthology, River Poets Journal, Event Horizon, Miriam's Well, Unlikely Stories Mark V, and many other journals. Also a jazz flutist, she performs on occasion and writes spiritual melodies for flute and voice.