
This selection, chosen by Guest Curator Erika Eckart, is from Love Songs from the End of the World by Katherine Riegel, released by The Mainstreet Rag in 2019.
You Might Go Down to the Water
You do not believe
it, love, but you are
as necessary as flight.
No cardinal in his red suit
is more than you, no
monarch caterpillar at the leaves
of a milkweed
more possible. You, love,
are both possible and right,
like campfire smoke saturating
clothes and hair, like thunder traveling
so far through the humid air just
to be heard. Yes, in your shame
and sorrow you might go down
to the water and beg
it to take you away at last. Just
remember: even the knives
you carry in your head
are holy, even when they cut down
the mystery you almost
imagine and prod the boggy peat
under which any love you ever had for yourself
pretends to be dead. Why
does everything have to be
so sharp? Try to remember.
The blades are you, and they shine
in the light. Every moment,
every particle of every
thing in the whole damned universe
needs you.
- The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Geographies of the Heart by Caitlin Hamilton Summie - December 6, 2023
- Interview with Alexa White, SAFTA Writer in Residence - December 5, 2023
- Project Bookshelf: Kenli Doss - December 5, 2023