Reading in the Dark

by Charles Kell

Reading in the Dark

In Pataias I lie flat on an abandoned tennis court
            to watch the ants

            slowly rip apart then devour the carcass
            of a small gecko.

Weeds, tufts of grass poke from the cracked concrete
to touch the sky’s grayish blue.

Earlier, walking alone on the beach, sand
and cool water
                        mixing on my feet then legs—

I begin to fold this sea into another, try to arrange
time no longer as a collection
                                                            of images

more an opaque light at dusk—
the color of the wasp in the kitchen

                        flailing in the sink….

Waves outside; curtain brushes wall. At night
these sounds sepulcher me. I see with my eyes closed:
            the ants, the tennis court,

            my past, other waters.

A book hovers in the space above me and I can almost

            touch it.

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Poet Charles Kell (he/him) is the author of Ishmael Mask, (Autumn House Press, 2023.) His first collection, Cage of Lit Glass, (Autumn House Press, 2019) was chosen by Kimiko Hahn for the 2018 Autumn House Press Poetry Prize.

Artist Tracey Dean Widelitz (she/her) is a published writer, poet and photographer, and is a proud member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is the author of the published children’s book ‘A Heavenly World’. Her personal experience of pet loss would later become her first children’s book ‘A Heavenly World’. She is a proud Florida native and mom to two incredibly creative daughters (and the cutest fur baby, Honey Bun). Her poetry and photography have been published and featured in various literary publications, and her Dragonfly photography was featured at Agora Art Gallery, New York City, for the ‘New York, I Love You’ Exhibition October 2025. traceydeanwidelitz.com