Those winter evenings
when snowstorms
knocked out the power
we gathered at the kitchen table,
where in shadow my grandfather
lifted the glass chimney
& lit the oil lamp. Like the oil,
I trembled. Like the wick,
I cleanly burned. How dark
it was outside. How close
we were in that light. How quiet.
Even Now It Is Inside of Me by Joe Wilkins | Sandalwood Poetry Reed Diffuser Set
Joe Wilkins is the author of two novels, The Entire Sky and Fall Back Down When I Die; a memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers, and five collections of poetry, including Pastoral, 1994 and When We Were Birds.






