Mayita Mendez, Queen of Cathedral Grove, 2021 (Artist Website, Instagram)
Photograph
V. Rough Outline
This year is vanishing
& parts of us with it.
We all desire
to touch the past,
to feast upon
what might be found
within its primeval
forests, its inconstant
light.
Who knows
what might climb
out of the damp
shape of grief?
//
Sundial. Hourglass.
Obelisk. Church bell.
The cannon at noon.
The pendulum never stops.
Peel away days of mayhem,
days of sameness.
This calendar without end.
How much of us is fossil,
so close to forgetting
our indelible communion
with others?
//
I envy us that lost July:
the sound of our breathing
plaited into nature,
the sweet tangle
of dandelion stems
along the path,
& the frost thereafter.
For now,
our long-lost selves
are ingrained there,
waiting.