This is the moment, this, when yesterday
Encroaches on tomorrow, holds it fast
And drags it by the neck into the past,
Blindfolded through the riches of today.

These warm arms, this free breath, this crystal light:
All this puts me in mind of that cold steel
Gauntlet clenched tight around my throat. I feel
The grip, even now, of that coming night.

And yet this dread, lodged deep in time’s morass,
Is but a moment, a mere dread in time,
And will not long enjoy its haughty prime
Before it too must go this way and pass,

Become, indeed, sublime. Dark are the charms
That move this light, this breath, and warm these arms.

Carmine Di Biase has written on Shakespeare, on modern English and Italian literature, and on translation. He is Professor of English at Jacksonville State University. Most recently, several of his poems have appeared in the South Florida Poetry Journal.