I Don't Say Goodbye, I Only Say Ciao—
What bloody lense holds firm between this mystery & us? Two shiny crows
tapping intelligently on the glass of a dream.
Please! Do not make me do the human things—
I must tend to my many plankton realities,
must be off with my better self:
One million faces lined
along a mirrored tunnel & in each that same tricky knot begging.
You couldn’t know how long I suffered over it, my long waiting at the end of the maze.
I can only guess what you think I’m after, stretching in the mirror
while you rattle on about sabotage,
an old tension springing in the body.
Copyright © 2021 by Gabrielle Octavia Rucker. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 8, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.