Contract between Forward and Reply
would you be a lender
if it coincided with war
could you be sure your tenderness
came from more than envy
should you have amended
those rules that bound you
careful!
would you have descended
from behind that leaden war
could you foresee
how slender my heart
should you then doubt
my fear of deep intention
would you be more
than the commended old wrong
would you be still
my song of snow in sight
would you be
the provision in the sky
would you know more
than a law a weight
a mended wall that wood
that night?
Copyright © 2017 by Mia You. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 24, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.