Jacob Hammer: Why Hold the Night

Jacob Hammer: Why Hold the Night
Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Night

 

Why hold the night

like a trinket

 

You cannot

 

You cannot press so much

silence

into a palm

 

Oh but to try

 

I’ll be trying

every night

 

Something to hold through

these slipping hours of

days

 

I want a silence

to place on my tongue

 

Tuck in my cheek

all day long

 

My night-silence

safe

 

Warmed by starlight

my hot spit

the promise underneath it all

 

I inhabit the well of this want


Jacob Hammer has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. His work can be found in See Spot Run Literary Journal, Fourth & Sycamore, Peacock Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Zvona i Nari, The Collapsar, The Tishman Review, and has been featured in the Pine River Anthology.