Tuesday, June 9, 2020

CATCH 22

The teacher who said—
never begin 

a poem with 
"I remember"—

must have been 
exaggerating;

since now, all you can recall,
having ran 
rings around the world

and understood nothing 
as profoundly as ever, 

is waiting 
for the day's shadows to come

and completely cover 
your losses.

You were desperate 
to record
the exact syncopations 

of bricks and flowers, 
sidewalks and foliage, 

rising and falling,
almost like a language

in which someone had been
trying to pronounce your name correctly. 

In that moment, 
you only lived 
and breathed to preserve, 

so that another 
might understand in the future, 

how, just before 
the evening storm,  

those incessant bird calls 
sounded 
all the sweeter 

for having nothing whatever 
to do with you
or your urges.