Author: Elizabeth Maynard

I light candles now
not to curse the darkness but
greet this growing dawn

Don't give any more
to any man whose love ends
where your heart begins

Red birds chatter to each other
oblivious to my importance
They are not troubled
by any cares but their own

At last I make myself lighter
cross items from the list
permit myself to sleep
if not to dream

I gave you away with the mountains
rivers, wide waving fields
tiny homeless parts
and every other thing I could
lay my hands on

Is it that I do not want
or cannot own it?

I put the house in order
hope that every well-placed thing
rights a wrong
I feel
but cannot reach

Cyclone, hurricane, typhoon
I know them all, wind and water
Trinity: three in one

No matter how much rain
whispers or roars
it cannot wash clean
the imagined sullied thing

I want to want you
but you cannot make someone
feel what they do not