THE MEADOW, THE RIVER

      The meadow unfolded before me,

      a soft, uncrossable rot.

      I tore myself in two along my spine and sent half of me

      into the night to see if I would make it through.

      I waited at the meadow’s black mouth.

      What news? I practiced asking the grass,

      the shadows of black-eyed Susans, my boots.

      The gone edge of me felt clean against the wind’s hand.

      The gone edge of me felt bright and hot.

      It was hard to see in the dark with just one eye

      but I thought I could see the other half of me

      moving slowly across the meadow.

      Was I waving, or was that just the wind in my hair?

      Was I calling, or did the wind just bend itself across my ear?

      I put my foot down and felt the grass rise around it

      like a river. Like the way a lover might rise

      from the cold bed of one and pull you under.

      I couldn’t see anything across the meadow.

      I couldn’t blink the blackness from my eyes.

      In fact there was no meadow.

      In fact the river had washed away the grass, the black-eyed Susans,

      my leg below the knee.

      I had sent half of me into that water, and now the gone edge

      fevered for its brother.

      My leg untethered itself, then my shoulder, my lung.

      Was it wind or water that rushed over my tongue?

we

      had

      a taste for

      error

      and

      frail boats

      o ye

      brave sailors in

      an

      unexplored

      sky.

      we

      strayed from home

      and

      failed utterly

      on

      the shores of space