I propose to write a poem
on the anniversary of Marthe Reed’s death.
The poem will be about her and not about her.
It’ll have sunlight around it,
the sunlight that surrounds me like suede.
As I write the poem, she won’t be dead anymore.
After I write the poem, she won’t be dead anymore.
Her absence will hum differently.
The poem will have a house finch at the feeder.
I’ll only note the finch, not mask it
with personification or pathetic fallacy.
It is, after all, its own agent. I’ll play on
the relationship between words and things,
things and ideas.
Empty grocery shelves,
lonely hospital beds, armed white picketers.
The poem will note the pandemic beyond the yard.
I’ll use the phrase “irresponsible politician,”
but not well because vagueness.
And I’ll quote President Trump, something hoaxes,
something scarves or hydroxychloroquine.
And I’ll quote Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson,
something no shutdown order because
Arkansas’s stronger than coronavirus.
The irresponsibility will be apparent.
I’ll note that Marthe would’ve had much to say
about responsibility to each other and the earth.
She was a Capricorn, after all.
Marthe gardening, Marthe baking pies,
writing poems that stab the eyes with sight.
The poem will circle back to the house finch
that had disappeared but suddenly returned now
like memory or grief or love.
–
C.S. Carrier is the author of After Dayton and Mantle. His poem, “The Natural State,” won the Omnidawn Broadside Contest in 2018. Other poems have appeared in The Laurel Review and Four Way Review. He has an M.F.A. from UMass Amherst and a Ph.D. from UL Lafayette. He lives in Indianapolis, IN.