Sharks' Teeth
By Kay Ryan
Everything contains some
silence. Noise gets
its zest from the
small shark's-tooth
shaped fragments
of rest angled
in it. An hour
of city holds maybe
a minute of these
remnants of a time
when silence reigned,
compact and dangerous
as a shark. Sometimes
a bit of a tail
or fin can still
be sensed in parks.
Copyright Credit: Kay Ryan, "Sharks’ Teeth" from The Niagara River. Copyright © 2005 by Kay Ryan. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. All rights reserved. Caution: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be cleared with Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Source: Poetry (April 2004)