By Molly Spencer, writing instructor at the Ford School
In the west, etched and bony light of moonset.
East, warm breath of sun
fleshing the sky. Nothing
will ever be as legible
as these hills, still
black with their faith in themselves,
even as the stars drift
away again. Even as children wash up
on beaches. All those gunned down.
Even the fires, the gaining seas,
the waters churning
between one heart
and the next
heart, silt settling in the low spots—
Even so, the first bird has begun
the oldest song. A light
flicks on
over a sink.
Someone is awake
somewhere. Today is Wednesday. My body
adds itself again to the unfolding
rooms of time,
foot on the stair. This is how to go on
breaking
with the broken world—
little spun
ball, lifeboat, faithful, fist
full of wildflowers with their roots pulled loose.
From If the House by Molly Spencer. Reprinted by permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. © 2019 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.
Below is a formatted version of this article from State & Hill, the magazine of the Ford School. View the entire Spring 2020 State & Hill.