A smudge of cloud on the horizon, then the pale city halo in the night sky. Quiet on the water-in the bare trees, tinsel rain. A bright, silent wheel turns on the bayside where the secret flag is raised at midnight. Skiffs push off from docks in the fair harbor. I don't want to hear, Again, Are you tired? That's why I bought the boat. Shadow of a Cloud but No Cloud, the latest collection from enigmatic prose poet Killarney Clary, is a book-length sequence of unnumbered, untitled poems, each evoking a clear moment in time. The details on which Clary chooses to focus suggest a narrative that will not resolve. The unnamed people with whom she interacts offer exchanges she is desperate to prolong, and in attempts to understand her place, she reaches beneath the fragile armor of those loved, especially those who can no longer answer her. This quietly haunting book, remarkable for its subtlety and delicacy, is Clary's strongest, most engaging work to date and amply shows her to be a master of this lyric genre.
