David Shattuck

An Invisible City

I am at once the snow and the city hidden
underneath. Lunatics wrote these streets.

Tonight, even the moon shudders with the cold—
opening and closing, opening and closing.

When I sleep the dark-blind moth of your voice
flutters against attic windows.

I’m perfect at breaking apart
what my dreams so brutally perfect.

We light the bedside lamp at dawn
and watch the mountain step out of darkness.

David Shattuck

is a writing professor at Texas Woman's University. He received an MA from University of North Texas and an MFA from Eastern Washington University. His first book of poems, Invisible Cities, will be published by CW Books in September 2013.