Then the Further Day

From The Hunger, 2004.

She saw the queen of heaven once and kept the vision in her soul
No one believed what she had seen, no one believed what she heard.
– Leonard Cohen

Myth is history we need.
-Jan Zwicky

As if the white wasps in their paper casings were symbols of wisdom
and so a promise I could trust.

As if the rain falling fitfully on the house-rounded shore
were a selflessness and giving in to destinywere admirable completely.

As if the land was not to be heard at night pouring winter through
itself to Gonzales Bay.

Mornings of white light, my paler self walks the water untethered.

And even before me, Spanish captains with black between their teeth,
squiring names – San Juan, Esperanza, Escalante. They could not
escape through the residue of memory.

In its time, when it is ready, the ocean turns and sings the calcium
from bone until it is no more.

Come on let me hold you, won’t you let me hold you, like
Bernadette would do.

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