Shadows deepen across the town,
slowly climb the hillsides
until the last of the sunlight leaves
forested mountaintops, remnant
of a still, green day beyond the valley.

Amber street lamps flicker
alive, a necklace of fireflies
along the riverbank.

And the river flows over stones,
dusk merging into starlight.

The heart slows down.
Self drifts away, echo
of a distant temple bell.

Mark Zimmermann’s poems have appeared in a variety of venues: the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Milwaukee Public Radio’s “Lake Effect” program, Rosebud, Cream City Review, New Letters, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, and elsewhere. His first poetry collection, Impersonations, was published by Pebblebrook Press in 2015. Currently he is finishing a poetry manuscript centered on his time living in Japan from 1990-2001. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife Carole.