Today's poem is by Terry L. Kennedy

To Stand Astonished
       

Overnight, it seems, the butterfly bush,
an explosion of purple; and none
of last night's patriotic display
named for it; plus a lone hummingbird moth—
not bird at all, but reminder: As in,
why shouldn't one beauty offer
itself to another? Why not,
if offered, take? Why not
become so close to each other
that, in the end, we can
do nothing but stand astonished
at what, eventually, must become
a separation—
        separation being
        what life, mostly, is.
This must become the question
of what love is for,
what grief is, if it
changes nothing of who you are, still:
bright star, shining on,
even when I cannot see you.

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Copyright © 2023 Terry L. Kennedy All rights reserved
from The Southern Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission