Paul Sohar

Sun Taking a Wrong Turn

a sunless ceiling has no clouds either
nothing to hold it up except tradition
and long-held beliefs

the danger signs that peel off
and invade the floor are soon
trampled and blend into the dirt of
the everyday kind we’re used to

when a door opens it’s only to admit
or release another door
for doors are the pillars of a sunless ceiling

the silence would drown us waiting here
but we have the tv screen to hang on to
it keeps us afloat even while sending
volleys of words at us

a sunless sky is a godless sky says one but
god has committed a ceremonial suicide
says another and it’s time to elect a new one

more doors come and go
more asbestos peels off the ceiling
artificial snow and shreds of an immortal beard

patience is the strength of doors
the wall paint of a sunless ceiling
the chewing gum of those who have no choice but wait

if asked we’ll say it’s okay to bang your head against a wall
but when someone gets up and does it
we politely turn the other way

and we don't believe the tv telling us
the sun's waiting in another building
fondling clouds carelessly mute

 

Paul Sohar finished his higher education with a degree in philosophy and a day job in chemistry; since then, he has been writing and publishing in every genre, including seventeen volumes of translations, the latest being The Refugee (Iniquity Press, 2019). His own poetry is available in three books: Homing Poems (Iniquity Press, 2006), The Wayward Orchard (Wordrunner Press Prize winner, 2011) and now In Sun’s Shadow (Ragged Sky Press, 2020). Prose works: True Tales of a Fictitious Spy (Synergebooks, 2006) and a collection of one-act plays from One Act Depot (Saskatoon, Canada, 2014). Theater: wrote the lyrics for G-d Is Something Gorgeous (produced by Applause Theater in Scranton, PA, 2007). Magazines: Agni, Big Hammer, Gargoyle, Rattle, and hundreds of others.