I Want to Be the Storm

I Want to Be the Storm

Matthew Miller

James - Mark 1

When I watch the tenon fit like a child’s palm
into their father’s hand, or when the storm, 
cryptic and swift, drifts, its lightning 
like caramel and sapphire filtered 
through desert sand, or when things slip 
softly into what I think is heaven, then unwilling 
lips petition - what do you want with us? 
The fire hisses on the cold rocks. Yards of net 
with holes uncinched, gaps where fish will burst 
like thunder and thrash back toward the shoal. It’s easy 
to sleep, alone in the boat, as mute currents 
lap the oaken hull. We only huddle when the squall 
shrieks, its authority shaking down the shore.

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Matthew Miller
Poet & Teacher

Matthew teaches social studies, swings tennis rackets, and writes poetry - all hoping to create home. He and his wife live beside a dilapidating orchard in Indiana, where he tries to cut paths through the thorns for their four sons to hike through. His poetry has been featured in Whale Road Review, River Mouth Review, EcoTheo Review and Saint Katherine Review.

Photography by Filip Zrnzević