You lead me to that place
where addicts give themselves up.
I have given myself to the linear to
the straight line.
No longer turning.
No longer considering
that which could
have occurred.
I’m a rocket blasting into
the unknowable.
No more pondering forever
heavy forever sick with it.
No longer booming fados.
Or sitting in rooms with suicidal
guitarists plucking sunrise.
No more addiction among addicts.
I’m confessing this to them.
They are moaning.
They are asking me to leave.
I leave you here.
From Aurora Americana (Princeton University Press, 2023) by Myronn Hardy. Copyright © 2023 by Myronn Hardy. Used with the permission of the publisher.