Counterglow
       

Consider the meteorite,
              110,000 pounds of

debris that hollowed out
              Wolfe Creek Crater;

how Oppenheimer's boldest
              nightmares couldn't

concoct the kind of ruin
              that vanishes a sky

for years; how anything can
              become a tourist attraction.

Consider what we do to ourselves
              when the one person we love

renounces our touch. Consider angels,
              my grandmother used to say,

& how you never know which saves
              & which consumes us; whatever

you believe, how it all comes down
              to flame. There's too much

written about the end. Pale horses &
              rogue nukes & the smaller gods

of razor & lukewarm bathwater. When I
              consider each meal is someone's

last, am I meant to lose my appetite
              or keep dragging my fork

over this emptied plate, never sated?
              Consider how we become our own

conclusion; how what we've hung out
              to dry remains crucified; how believing

these things beautiful might not make them so.
              Consider how rivers multiply

into ocean; a few misplaced words & now
              the bombs have their wings.

& so much goddamn waiting, as if we have to
              imagine what nooses do to necks.

Consider what's been redacted from life
              to make all this anguish seem an art.

Tweet
Copyright © 2020 John Sibley Williams All rights reserved
from Connecticut River Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission