Dying of Day

Late November’s severely thin
sky is yellow, falling wounded
toward the naked mouth of night;
bone-thatched trees seem to be
choking on it, like children
that have drank sugar water for days.

He has been ill for years,
carving small starving words
like shards of ice from the deep
ground of winter’s frozen dead.

His house murmurs, its doors are crooked,
its windows sick like broken eyes.

Oaks are tapping the curtained
window behind him,
rasping with moss-damp
voice, as he pens words in
tattered ways, sending them
into the throat of dying day.

Michael Paul Ladanyi resides with his wife and two daughters in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains. His poetry has appeared widely in print and online journals in the US and other countries. His most recent print publications include: Snow Monkey, Spring 2003, Maxis Review, (Marygrove College, MI) Spring 2003, Joey and the Black Boots, pring 2003 farewell issue #41, and The Circle, #24 Winter 2003. His most recent online publications include: ken*again, Volume 4 #2 Summer 2003, Write-away-poetry, Summer 2003, The Muse Apprentice Guild, Spring 2003, Poems Niederngasse, #57 May 2003, Voices, Spring 2003 and The Pedestal Magazine, Summer 2003 issue #16. His work is upcoming in several magazines and collections of poetry, including: In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself, Volume 5, James River Poetry Review, Epiphany Magazine, Retort Magazine and others. Michael's chapbook, Palm Shadows, was released in June 2002 by Purple Rose Publications, the printers of Promise Magazine. He is currently searching for a publisher for his full ength poetry book, Humming Riddles In Naked Seasons. Michael served as a poetry editor with Rustlings of the Wind: http://wind.xephyrus.com/ for over a year, until the publisher decided to close the magazine after a five year run. e is a poetry reviewer with the magazine Write-away-poetry: http://www.write-away-poetry.org/ and the founder and co-editor of Adagio Verse Quarterly:

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