Click here to listen to Kathryn Maris read this poem.
Loss loved me, and suddenly: loss loved me not.
I tried to be winsome, I tried following
my father’s rule: be aloof if you want to allure!
I loaded my speech with emptiness.
I let him kneel at my feet with a flame.
I played goddess to his supplicant.
I smiled as he stalked me
but tilted my head in sadness, deceptively.
Still he left, and now what? It’s spring—
and worse—there is no wind
and I am nothing without the wind
and I am even less in the too-bright sun.
I said goodbye to my white-haired love
Who kissed me with his tongue.
I said, “Goodbye. Goodbye. The attention was fun.”
He said, “Not to worry, girl—it’s only just begun.”
