Adam Chiles

The Singing Gate

for Dori and Duna

You might hear it sometimes,
before sleep: that high drill

of iron. Beyond outbuildings,
tractors, hitched at moor’s edge,

below Grimannsfell: a remote
organ, a gizmo for the mistrals.

It plays alone for moss-stricken
rock, the ponies retired, stabled

once more in their black stalls.
Only twilight now, a limitless

spasm of rain, and this gale
pursed at the gate holes singing

into a lit, and fathomless dark.

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Adam Chiles is the author of Bluff (Measure Press, 2024). His work has appeared in numerous journals including Copper Nickel, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, The Threepenny Review and Willow Springs. Chiles is a professor of English and creative writing at Northern Virginia Community College and serves on the editorial board at Poet Lore.