Island Fever
by Edward Byrne
Far from home, my son sleeps
off his fever, bedspread kicked
free and knotted at his knees.
For more than four hours, I have
listened to his labored breathing,
a repeated wheeze kept as steady
as the sloughing of surf foam
we have seen slip down shallow
slopes of the beach bordering
along this inlet’s curving shore,
knowing how often, looking
through his bedroom window,
I would watch a bright moon
shed its light over that meadow
spread out across the county
road from our house, dividing
nighttime into black and white
as those large irregular shadows
of old oaks closer by fan out,
form dark islands along the lawn,
places I imagine only the bravest
among us aren’t ever afraid to enter.
by Edward Byrne
On their wedding anniversary in the year
following Mother’s death, my father and I
sailed. We’d boarded an old charter boat
for a brief fishing trip to some of the farther
islands off the jagged southern coastline.
One morning, off the port side, we’d seen
the first frenzy of fish swim by, darting
like dozens of shooting stars under the sea’s
surface, its deep green stippled with spots
of sunlight seeping between parted clouds
and shaped by waves tracing our ship’s
wake, marking the darker ocean with sprays
of ivory florets designed almost like tiny
eyelets that once decorated lacework trim
on the bedspread my father remembered
made by my mother while he was yet away
at war, patterns looped with white thread
during the few months before their marriage.
____________________________
Edward Byrne is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently
Tidal Air (Pecan Grove Press). A sixth collection, Seeded Light, is
forthcoming. His poetry has also appeared in numerous anthologies
and journals such as American Literary Review, American Poetry
Review, American Scholar, Ascent, Black Warrior Review,
Carolina Quarterly, Crab Orchard Review, Florida Review,
Greensboro Review, The Literary Review, Mid-American Review,
Missouri Review, North American Review, Quarterly West,
Southern Humanities Review, and Southern Poetry Review. Byrne
is a professor of American literature and creative writing, and he directs
the visiting writers program in the English Department at Valparaiso
University, where he also serves as the editor of Valparaiso Poetry
Review. More information is available on his home page or weblog.
On “Island Fever” and “Southern Islands”:
These two poems are among a number of recent works I have
written concerning father-son relationships, including the book-
length diptych “Tidal Air,” presenting perspectives from both the
father and the son.
◄ Previous Page Apple Valley Review, Spring 2007 Next page ►
Far from home, my son sleeps
off his fever, bedspread kicked
free and knotted at his knees.
For more than four hours, I have
listened to his labored breathing,
a repeated wheeze kept as steady
as the sloughing of surf foam
we have seen slip down shallow
slopes of the beach bordering
along this inlet’s curving shore,
knowing how often, looking
through his bedroom window,
I would watch a bright moon
shed its light over that meadow
spread out across the county
road from our house, dividing
nighttime into black and white
as those large irregular shadows
of old oaks closer by fan out,
form dark islands along the lawn,
places I imagine only the bravest
among us aren’t ever afraid to enter.
by Edward Byrne
On their wedding anniversary in the year
following Mother’s death, my father and I
sailed. We’d boarded an old charter boat
for a brief fishing trip to some of the farther
islands off the jagged southern coastline.
One morning, off the port side, we’d seen
the first frenzy of fish swim by, darting
like dozens of shooting stars under the sea’s
surface, its deep green stippled with spots
of sunlight seeping between parted clouds
and shaped by waves tracing our ship’s
wake, marking the darker ocean with sprays
of ivory florets designed almost like tiny
eyelets that once decorated lacework trim
on the bedspread my father remembered
made by my mother while he was yet away
at war, patterns looped with white thread
during the few months before their marriage.
____________________________
Edward Byrne is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently
Tidal Air (Pecan Grove Press). A sixth collection, Seeded Light, is
forthcoming. His poetry has also appeared in numerous anthologies
and journals such as American Literary Review, American Poetry
Review, American Scholar, Ascent, Black Warrior Review,
Carolina Quarterly, Crab Orchard Review, Florida Review,
Greensboro Review, The Literary Review, Mid-American Review,
Missouri Review, North American Review, Quarterly West,
Southern Humanities Review, and Southern Poetry Review. Byrne
is a professor of American literature and creative writing, and he directs
the visiting writers program in the English Department at Valparaiso
University, where he also serves as the editor of Valparaiso Poetry
Review. More information is available on his home page or weblog.
On “Island Fever” and “Southern Islands”:
These two poems are among a number of recent works I have
written concerning father-son relationships, including the book-
length diptych “Tidal Air,” presenting perspectives from both the
father and the son.
◄ Previous Page Apple Valley Review, Spring 2007 Next page ►
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Apple Valley Review:
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 2, Number 1
(Spring 2007)
Copyright © 2007
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 2, Number 1
(Spring 2007)
Copyright © 2007
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
 |  |  |  |  |
Southern Islands