Now that we exist
on the other
side of desire,
when I tell you
I love you, I mean
we live
on a planet
that’s dying
& it’s no accident
that the calla lily
is both the symbolic
flower for weddings
& funerals. I told you
that loons
mated for life
& when one died
the other spent
her days calling
out to him across
the gray pond.
Once again,
you see,
I was wrong. Look,
I will be
honest with you:
when I promised
myself, I did so
knowing not even
the sun lasts forever.
Look! The future
is pressing itself
so closely
against us it has already
passed us by
& to die must make
the same sound
as the woman
I watched during
a rainstorm
thrashing a river
with a branch.
Could we make
time pass
a little more
slowly? I want
to watch
the fireflies spark
up the tallgrass
& the bullfrog,
that unrolls
its wide fat tongue
a thousand
frames per second,
thwap the fly
that flickers
before it
with its honey-thick spit.
from Broken SpectreFind more by Jacques J. Rancourt at the library
Copyright © 2021 Jacques J. Rancourt
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.