Saturday, March 22, 2014
Kate Willens--poem
What to do when the answers leave you
To begin with, be still.
For the first few
minutes, do not say
a word about what
you have lost.
Leave your bed and walk the house.
Nod silently to the chipped cups
and the darkened grout;
calmly acknowledge the rug where it frayed,
and the tea-stained,
should’ve-been-washed curtains.
Now carefully bring out
the torn eagerness
of love, laid
too soon at his feet,
and the dried iris at
your own. See it still
infused with color.
Though you want to
sweep it up, cast it out,
don’t. Instead, note its
beauty in death.
Feel the whole room
of your body,
the mind’s cutlery
entrapped in the skull,
its ache to receive news
of life on other planets.
Tell it the answers
proved unfaithful at last,
that you would rather
have real questions any day.
Act as if you believe this.
- Kate Willens
