This is not a love poem. That
would be
a euphemism. This is a poem about a girl
who threw herself into the river
without being able to see the other shore
just because she loved the way the water felt
against her skin (which was pressing, which was
moving forward and forward
like fire along a trail of gasoline.) Or this is a poem about
a deer who accidentally became attached
to a lion. And sometimes she daydreams about the jungle.
Are there any jungle deer? she wonders, as she strokes
the lion’s paw and tells him stories
to make this lion’s heart slow down. Or. This
is a poem about a man who only wanted, all his life,
nothing more than a mountain
home. A rustic one, full of maple syrup and old books
and a stove that lights if you yell at it right.
And the woman waiting in the bathtub
who threw herself into the river
without being able to see the other shore
just because she loved the way the water felt
against her skin (which was pressing, which was
moving forward and forward
like fire along a trail of gasoline.) Or this is a poem about
a deer who accidentally became attached
to a lion. And sometimes she daydreams about the jungle.
Are there any jungle deer? she wonders, as she strokes
the lion’s paw and tells him stories
to make this lion’s heart slow down. Or. This
is a poem about a man who only wanted, all his life,
nothing more than a mountain
home. A rustic one, full of maple syrup and old books
and a stove that lights if you yell at it right.
And the woman waiting in the bathtub
with a candle. And the dog who likes to be
wrestled. And in the end of the poem the man
is there, the smell of pancakes in his nose and winter
humming outside in the trees.
And the man can’t bear it.
That terrifying realization: what he has
is finally what he wants,
and that’s it. That’s all.
You have the mountain home. You have
the impossible sunrise. The only thing left
is to put your guard down and rise up coolly,
like the moon itself—
You can turn as old as you want to
but I’ll still be the one by the shore
with my hand outstretched.