Iris Lee
That Time of Day
Afternoon light is old light, tired and slow…
–—Georgi Gospodinov, Time Shelter
When I began to get serious about writing poetry, one of my first attempts was a fantasy about a princess (me?) trapped in the doldrums of 3 p.m. Not very good, but it captured how I’d always felt about that time of day: how it seemed to morph into something like pulled taffy, being endlessly stretched. You’d think I would have felt differently, 3 p.m. being school dismissal time for most of my childhood. Yet my strongest recollections are of missing school, lying sick in bed as the day crept by; then of my adult years in a nine-to-five job when 3 p.m. found me in a sort of druggy stupor, convinced that 5 p.m. would never come again. All the way from his home in Bulgaria, novelist Georgi Gospodinov gets me.
time stumbles
into a stifling cave
moments curl helpless
movement sucked from corners
the world’s pulse slows
About the Author
Iris Lee (the pen name of Iris Lee Stoler) is a Brooklyn native whose window overlooks the Brooklyn Bridge. She’s published a collection of poems, Urban Bird Life (NYQ Books), and has had work in Epiphany, Marsh Hawk Review, and Passager, among others. Iris spent her work life in public service and now spends it “in the service of words.”
I love the imagery. Pulse slows. Brings back the wish that I could go forward…what is stopping me. Stifling cave.
Iris, This is a wonderful piece. It is suffused with feeling. I read it earlier and it has stayed with me. Memorable in so many ways. You brought that time of day to life as you and many other people experience it
In a profound way with an economy of words. You have a way with words and feelings
Iris, I recently read Gospodinov’s novel, Time Shelter, which I liked very much. Your poem captures some of the mood of that novel.