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One Man Town

A man asked me to marry him.

It was a day cloud-scarce, the sky bright and skeletal

like a beginning. I saw right through

to his wild green heart

as he explained the impossible, believing

if there is a time machine it is not a ship in space,

but a horse on the hemline of a field

fearless in one direction, toward sunup.

Then, the night sky would bloom

into brilliance and there, see?, there I am—he can

barely make me out—a figment tearing toward him

through the spring, at last.

from To See the QueenFind it in the library

Copyright © Persea Books 2013
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Persea Books.

Published in Allison Seay Poems

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