Poetry |

“What I Like,” “Elegy” & “The Second Year”

What I Like

 

 

I like it when an afternoon

passes into evening unannounced.

Hours I don’t have to count,

hours I don’t have to account for.

It’s a strange affliction,

this compulsion to translate

consciousness into words,

then send those words—where?

Toward you, my audience

of strangers. The work requires

great effort to pursue,

and years and years of hours.

That’s why I like it when

dinner’s cancelled, or the forecast

tells people to stay home,

and I especially like it when

my housekeeper yells goodbye

on her way out the door.

 

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

 

Elegy

 

 

An elegy reveals the current

state of the grief. Therefore,

I cannot write an elegy.

Grief is a shape-shifter.

I’d have to chase not only it

but all its stand-ins,

and chase them forever.

 

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

 

The Second Year

 

 

For a year I felt nothing.

Spasms of tears, then again nothing.

I sent his scarves to one daughter,

the fox painting to another.

Changed all the downstairs paint colors.

Put the martini glasses out of sight.

The second year looked back

on the first year, and saw a widow.

Contributor
Chase Twichell

Chase Twichell has published eight books of poetry, most recently Things As It Is (Copper Canyon, 2018). Her work has received awards from the NEA, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Kingsley Tufts Award, the Balcones Poetry Prize, the Artists’ Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in upstate New York.

Posted in Poetry

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.