A Poem by Patty Seyburn

I can distinguish a wolf from a dog,

between white and blue or blue and green

in pre-dawn light, recognize an acquaintance

from a distance of four cubits (three

lengths of the arm, elbow to middle finger)

identify the sparrows in full voice (chirp),

see when the eucalyptus halt their hula.

It’s later than you think serius est quam cogitas

says my friend of the dream world,

prone to aphorism over conversation.

How would you like me to begin the day,

Oh Palp, Oh Finger, Oh Palm with your

deepening map? The fact that our faces

were created as the distance between

tip of thumb and tip of pinky when held

apart signals that we should cover them

with our hands when we pray, so at the

right moment, they can offer a big reveal:

Eyes, brow, mouth, lips, nose, chin, skin

and philtrum – a vestigial medial depression –

God, said another great architect, is in

the details, and we are proof, with so many.

Patty Seyburn is a writer of poems and professor at California State University Long Beach. Her captivating style plunges readers into inquisitive passions and she views poetry as a vehicle to embrace the struggle of faith.

*Read Threshold Delivery, Perfecta, Hilarity, Mechanical Cluster, or Diasporadic today.*

Patty Seyburn has previously published five collections of poems: Threshold Delivery (Finishing Line Press, 2019); Perfecta (What Books Press, Glass Table Collective, 2014); Hilarity, (New Issues Press, 2009), Mechanical Cluster (Ohio State University Press, 2002) and Diasporadic (Helicon Nine Editions, 1998). She earned a BS and an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University, an MFA in Poetry from University of California, Irvine, and a Ph.D. in Poetry and Literature from the University of Houston. She is a professor at California State University, Long Beach.

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