Unspoken Sky

Alex Skovron


(after Tina Makereti)


It arrived unannounced, looked around

and sank into a slumber. The street-animals

walked by, oblivious. The machines wheeled

as they must. The towers leaned into themselves

whenever it turned its face to the sky.

The sky itself said nothing, in the way of skies,

but streamed with a forgiving light.


It awoke, forgiven, unaware it had been gazing

upward, squinting with eyes closed against

the unspoken sky. It stood, looked around,

and began to walk. The street-animals

stopped to watch, the machines pulled up,

loudly attentive. The towers frowned

and their perspectives corrected themselves.


At last the sky opened its eye and the eye

laughed, in the manner of the blind,

the seeing unseeing blind. It walked on,

disturbed by something approaching thought,

but clearer than any words, sadder

than any sigh, deeper than the oceans

that had given it birth. There was no going back.



Alex Skovron is the author of six poetry collections, a prose novella and a book of short stories, The Man who Took to his Bed (2017). His latest volume of poetry, Towards the Equator: New & Selected Poems (2014), was shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. His next book of poetry, Letters from the Periphery, is in preparation.

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