“I am half sick of shadows”

First published in Hummingbird 10:4, June 2000, page 23. The poem was one of many made into a poster for distribution in Redmond, Washington, when I was poet laureate for the city.

I am half sick of shadows

this hinting at things

this whisper in place of declaring—

give me your poems with real toads

vaulting in noonday sun.