Once

Once, I read aloud a poem of lightning

That flashed from toes to throat
To mind
Then back up again
Into clouded dark.

Ever since, our electric bill’s
Been somehow cut in half

And my wife, now she speaks 
To me alone in bolts of thunder

Throughout the house and yard
Night and day unthinking
Of the neighbors 

As I lie dreaming in the basement
Of poets storming,

Their wooden ships built 
From ancient tongues

Tossed from port to shining port
On the bareback library

Of a fierce, enlightened ocean.