This Window is a Thirst But Not a Good Drink

Joanne Zarrillo Cherefko
2 min readMar 8, 2025

--

Photo by Jacky Zeng on Unsplash

From this window

In time and space,

I mark my place

With the soft

Retreat of senses

And a slow dance to

Self and lessness.

Below, pale offerings

Emerge from sun caverns to

Delight the sidewalks.

From a Hopper-lit

Soft corner of

A window

I see faces

Distorted and stretched

To screams of

Sad orifices that

Used to delight

Sidewalk persons.

I prefer this

Downward view

Shaded by drawn,

Sanctimonious pillars

That split this curtain

On fateful or frivolous

Occasions that have

Marked my place

In time and space.

Having no more truths

I can deny to myself,

I ask my monsters

To surrender,

To come inside the window, and

Not to shatter those images of

Cardboard people

Marking places

In other times

Through uncertain faces

And switched spaces

Of light from

Former windows.

From this window

In time and space,

I mark my place

With the soft

Retreat of senses

And a slow dance to

Self and lessness.

Below, pale offerings

Emerge from sun caverns to

Delight the sidewalks.

From a Hopper-lit

Soft corner of

A window

I see faces

Distorted and stretched

To screams of

Sad orifices that

Used to delight

Sidewalk persons.

I prefer this

Downward view

Shaded by drawn,

Sanctimonious pillars

That split this curtain

On fateful or frivolous

Occasions that have

Marked my place

In time and space.

Having no more truths

I can deny to myself,

I ask my monsters

To surrender,

To come inside the window, and

Not to shatter those images of

Cardboard people

Marking places

In other times

Through uncertain faces

And switched spaces

Of light from

©Joanne Cherefko

--

--

Joanne Zarrillo Cherefko
Joanne Zarrillo Cherefko

Written by Joanne Zarrillo Cherefko

Award-winning educator and published poet: A Consecration of the Wind, Fragmented Roots, and Souls Tilled Like Soil. Website: www.joannezarrillocherefko.com

No responses yet