Yonder
1
Anything cancels
everything out.
If each point
is a singularity,
thrusting all else
aside for good,
“good” takes the form
of a throng
of empty chairs.
Or it’s ants
swarming a bone.
2
I’m afraid
I don’t love
my mother
who’s dead
though I once –
what does “once” mean? –
did love her .
So who’ll meet me over yonder?
I don’t recognize the place names.
Or I do, but they come
from televised wars.
First published in Shiny, issue 13. Copyright © Rae Armantrout. Appears in Next Life (Wesleyan, 2007). Reprinted with permission of the author.