C. John Graham

The Plan

1
hair down a lightless 
drain      some dumb knot      
sees what I do not

2
scatter of feathers 
on the just-polished bay window      
a finch’s body     the light made

3
a capricious breeze suspends 
its piffling complaints      I no longer
have the plan within me

4
say prayer is      
dozens of things      say one
I cannot 

5
one man’s plan: rocket 
to a star above the stars      where he
is finally alive

Note: “I no longer have the plan within me” is from G.C. Waldrep’s “What David Taught” in feast gently

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C. John Graham is the author of the chapbook Where I’m Going from Bottlecap Press. He is a septuagenarian poet who formerly worked at a particle accelerator facility, and his poems have appeared in The Laurel Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Westchester Review, among other publications.