Derek Pollard

The Garden

When the sparrow calls at the first
Light of morning, all the cameras
Are set aside and the conservatory
Goes silent, everyone who had
Been milling about suddenly
Aware of the song's gorgeous
Transport, the Gare du Nord's iron
Fretwork laid over the Bellagio's
Vaulted glass peak, the sounds of
The station in its busyness beneath
This new and shared vacancy, this
Unexpected desire for leaving and
For that first, pleasured arrival
When the world is unsettled in
Its wilderness, and we only ever
Become the smallest of our angels
Beside the song that has announced
Not just this morning but the
Christmas that is every morning
In the garden of the world

About Derek Pollard

Derek Pollard is the co-author with Derek Henderson of the book Inconsequentia (BlazeVOX). His poems, creative non-fiction, and reviews appear in American Book Review, Colorado Review, Court Green, Diagram III, H_ngm_n, Pleiades, and Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, among numerous other anthologies and
journals. He is an Assistant Editor at Barrow Street, Inc.; a Black Mountain Institute Fellow at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and on faculty at Pratt Institute and at the Downtown Writer's Center in Syracuse, New York.