August

The sun rises
slowly melting
night, I drown
in the green
of another
morning.

Sadness has
stretched
my skin
until I no longer fit
in the world.

Late afternoon
spawns heat
lightning, dry
as barbed wire.
At night I trace

shadows on the ceiling
until the birds lull me
to sleep in their
small cradles
of song.

*Ellen Goldstein was born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Revew, The Formalist, The Mid-American Review, Streetlight, and The New Hampshire Review.