April 24, 2022I Want to Love the World
I want to love the world but I’m tired of it
walking by me on the street and not
even waving. And making so much noise
late at night. It’s a parked car with closed-
tight windows and the radio thumping.
It’s been outside my house for weeks. How
can you think of anything else with all
that artillery? I want to love the way early
afternoon looks on the stone floor of my
office, how pollen’s dust on my windows
casts a golden shadow. But that only
reminds me it’s getting later and now I
can’t tell you what I was trying to say. The
world has interrupted me. And why should
it care about that? I want to love the world
but I’m tired. In Kyiv, the coroner burns
church incense. To each face he uncovers,
he says, How? How did this happen to you?
from Poets Respond