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.
Rae Gouirand
Rae Gouirand is the author of two books of poetry: Glass is Glass Water is Water (Spork Press, 2018) and Open Winter (Bellday Books, 2011), winner of the Bellday Prize. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and is a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of California-Davis.