Eigengrau

If you shut your eyes right now,

light, visions, even numbers

appear and flow into brain gray—

true color of night, of shadows,

death and silhouettes, the fine dust

swept from uncharted wilderness

behind your closed eyelids,

color of rose rot, train steam,

the ghosts of everything living on

long after ruin or death—

maybe just a shade beyond that.

Michael Steffen’s fourth book, Blood Narrative, was published in 2021 by Main Street Rag Press (Visit www.mnsteffen.com to purchase copies). New work has appeared, or will appear soon, in Panoply, New Mexico Review and The Lowell Review. Michael is an MFA graduate from Vermont College and lives in Buffalo, NY.