Jacob Hammer: Why Hold the Night

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

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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.