Author: Elizabeth Maynard

I remember you awkward
myself, unkind
You might have had a crush
I was too busy
with the boys who did me wrong
to take the warm hand
you offered

I don't know what to say
as yet another takes leave
by her own hand
these decades of suffering
closed now with finality
I wonder less how she reached
that moment of exhaustion
than what more it would take
to join her there

Today is the day 
I lose the past
find the present
here with you

Take a number
hold it to the light
rock it gently to and fro
until it surrenders

The city is on the brink of falling
and so I know you are there
huddled in some small room
hoping it may be safe enough
as mortars drop close and loud
I could walk all night
but never reach you
separated by darkness and light
seas and meadows
longing as I do
to welcome you in
so we might at last
shelter each other

Here we meet
in the last of this wild evening's light
birdsong and the rustling of new leaves
a curious dog sniffs welcome
I see that kite clinging
to the top branches
far beyond any reach
I want so much to slip
our two warm hands together
fingers interwoven
to speak to each other
in those soft tones
I have been missing you so long
and miss you still
here in the last
of this wild evening's light

Green leaps from branches
gray, brown, black with rain
soon the new world
will find shelter under
the lightness of this

We are, of course
strangers to each other
but suddenly we speak
sing, marvel together
like long-found friends
joined in this moment
by our imagined membership
in this colorful tribe

In the station tonight
young people break up
women hold bare midriffs
tears well up and spill
between glittering breasts
It took so much to get here
all the expectations and plans
Now he is drunk and
doesn't understand
how much she hoped
to please him, to feel loved
and how tired she is of trying
of wishing
someone might tell her
at last, who she is

I don't know what to tell you
about this God you hoped for
the one who would charge in
at the last moment
and save the day

The bullets found their mark
warm bodies dropped
into this gap in the cool earth
where we found them
just yesterday

I think of the prophet
who prayed for peace
and plotted faithfully
against an army
until he, too, fell

And knew the truth