The word shimmer
did not originate 
with light. 
It was brought over 
from the blackbirds 
as they quivered up 
from the fields. They 
themselves stole it 
from the shadows 
of wind-struck trees. 
Shimmer leaked up 
from the underworld—
coalmines and limestone 
caves. Up from hidden fault 
and shatter, the quake 
of breakage and baritone 
rattles in the hills. 
Shimmer is what the dark 
does when light 
saunters up, all brightness 
and warmth. 
Shimmer is the ragged 
breath dark takes 
when light draws near.