Wendy Drexler

We Can’t Keep Getting Away with Everything If We Want to Stick Around

Did Monet love the light more than he loved
           Rouen Cathedral? Or did he need to stand
long enough in the same place to see

                           that nothing stays, even
the stones of evening are eroding, and even the saints
                                  in the portal soften in each other’s gaze.

When you were in the hospital that first day, I refused
           to be afraid, saving myself for that.

Cerberus needed three heads
           to keep the living
                       from entering the shadow kingdom
and the dead from leaving.

The paper mill at Brousses is dazzled
           by the turquoise wings
                       of dragonflies mating mid-air,
everything’s a pool of sensation at the edge of a pose.

                                  Grounded by appetite, my brain already
savors the coffee before my hand reaches the cup.

           Let’s touch all of it. Call it home.

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