It’s pretty empty now in the atoms
there are things now
that are not even books
the doors to which were kept open
except for one that was banging like a rudder
we heard it even up in the meadows
which were really packed with light and flower
you said it would destroy the town
your breakfasts were still in my body
the sun was a bangle in the wood
we passed a green cannon in the pine barrens
all that is old now
Copyright © 2023 by Gabriel Gudding. Originally published in Fence, Issue 40 (Winter 2023). Used with the permission of the author.