Fake Sun, by Anthony DiMatteo

Summer Evening, by Edward Hopper (USA). 1947.

Fake Sun (On Edward Hopper’s Summer Evening 1947)
 
It’s that serious moment when the party’s
over. A man and woman end up alone
under a porch with its garish lightbulb
like a fake sun. The night frames the scene
with a black smirk as if it knows
it cannot be lit. The woman too
has withdrawn her view from the man
turned towards her, offering words
to her she does not need or favour
even though his hand has reached
for his heart. She’s not convinced -
it’s his left hand, and she’s heard it
before if not from him, from others
who have eyeballed her up and down.
She knows words like light don’t reveal all.
​
Anthony DiMatteo

Anthony DiMatteo's recent poems and reviews have sprouted in the Cortland Review, Hunger Mountain, Los Angeles Review, Verse Daily, and Waccamaw. His current book of poems In Defense of Puppets has been hailed as, "a rare collection, establishing a stunningly new poetic and challenging the traditions that DiMatteo (as Renaissance scholar) claims give the poet 'the last word."(Cider Press Review).