Long Exposure

On that last day, we read images taken
from a moving car, listening

to the artist speak of wanting that way
time stretches things out

readable in the frame
so the image caught is the image itself

passing, then of how
she experimented with how long

to keep the shutter open. When things
line up or sit atop another, I join

a lump there, join the bottom of myself.
You sit beside, stroking my hand

those moments, first squinting at long skies
over Laramie then nodding.

Copyright © 2018 by Rae Gouirand. “Long Exposure” originally appeared in the winter 2018 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review. Used with permission of the author.