The Sunday Poet: Ben Carson

Poet Ben Carson

Benjamin D. Carson is a Professor of English at Bridgewater State University. His creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in Red Fez, The Ampersand Review, Cactus Heart, Free Inquiry, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, and the Charles River Journal.

We Give Birth to Light

The moon rose full over the cemetery

on the night my mother gave birth to her son,

his face round, his lips blue. This will be

the last one, she said. There will be no more.

The sun set an autumn orange over the field

on the night my mother watched my father take to the road,

his face chapped, his hands raw. This will be

the last harvest, she said. There won’t be another.

The North Star, my mother once said to no one, is the only

light that matters, the one that shines and shines

and shines, even after the last breath is taken,

the field abandoned, the lover lost.

We give birth to light, she muttered, so that

darkness too can have its day.