James Green

The Orionids

James Green

are lonely like the rest of us. They fall from Orion, that hapless hunter immortalized in the nightscape where he finds his final peace,

so I wake early and walk into darkness to pay homage, and I wait for his star-sparks to follow some tender urge. But now the sky is indifferent. Clouds of a nameless color

smear the southern horizon and I wonder what it means that I would come to this place in the steep of darkness for companionship, to meet a hero who hides in clouds.

Sitting on a lawn chair, under a blanket, hands cupping a mug of coffee, I notice clouds beginning to drift and the dog star peek into view, then disappear again.

I will comb the morning for metaphor.

James Green has worked as a naval officer, deputy sheriff, high school English teacher, professor of education, and administrator in both public schools and universities. Recipient of two Fulbright grants, he has served as a visiting scholar at the University of Limerick in Ireland and the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. In addition to academic publications, including three books, Green is the author of three chapbooks of poetry and a fourth, Long Journey Home, is forthcoming after winning the Charles Dickson Chapbook Contest sponsored by the Georgia Poetry Society., Individual poems have appeared in literary magazines in England, Ireland, and the United States. He resides in Muncie, Indiana.