Of the World Outside: Poetry by Jennifer Mills Kerr

The world outside my window never 
holds its breath, nor waits for a new sky. 
It doesn’t cast its eyes to the horizon, 
nor into the starry expanse of night 
in search of a new dream. 
The world outside listens to 
these words, these words, 
clicking inside my mind like birds 
pecking at seed inside winter’s dirt 
so black and damp it 
clings like grief. 
I shall die while the world outside 
accepts arrivals and departures at the 
same time. Now is the only word it knows– 
now, this moment, whispering light on 
golden hillsides of the world outside