“The Sun Does Not Set” by Mai-Lon Gittelsohn
My friend says, The sun does not set!
You stand on a crust of earth
that revolves away from the sun.
I whimper like a baby afraid that when mama
leaves, she won’t come back.
I want to go on watching the sun sink,
a glass of wine in my hand
and you by my side.
I cling to the setting of the sun
with the same passion that makes me believe
my heart will beat tomorrow and tomorrow.
My lungs will fill and empty, fill and empty
with a rhythm I have always taken for granted.
Today I order my new calendar and wonder at my optimism.
Such hope! Should I go on this way planning and planning?
The ancient Danes believed that a horse pulled
the sun across the sky. I see him! His mane flows over
his shoulders–the flaming sun riding in the chariot.
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Mai-Lon Gittelsohn’s Artist Statement:
A Native Californian, Mai-Lon has lived in Del Mar since 1971. She received her MFA
in Creative Writing in 2012 from Pacific University, Oregon, with a focus on poetry. A
finalist in the New Women’s Voices chapbook contest (Finishing Line Press 2013), her
chapbook Chop Suey and Apple Pie was published in 2014. Her poems have appeared in
the San Diego Poetry Annual, the Patterson Literary Review, the Magee Park Poets
Anthology, and the California Quarterly 2015 (a publication of the California State
Poetry Society). She has taught memoir writing classes in Del Mar and Encinitas since
2004.
