For love,

you leapt sometimes
you walked away sometimes

that time on the phone you
couldn’t get your breath
I leapt but couldn’t get to you

I caught the brow that bid the dead
I caught the bough that hid

I’m, you know, still here,
tulip, resin, temporary—

Credit

From Shirt in Heaven, published by Copper Canyon Press. Copyright © 2015 by Jean Valentine. Reprinted with permission of The Permissions Company on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.