And then one day
it was not safer to be numb
and I walked into the field
and lay me down in the shining grass
and opened myself to the sky.
And all my petals fell.
For a while I did not think
that I would survive
the loss. A great bird
circled my bones.
And then the wind
came and I became wind.
And the darkness came
and I became darkness.
And the earth
reached up
with its terrible gravity
and I became the earth.
And I asked who is
the one who believes
she is lost?
And in the asking
I felt her disappear.
The title’s “Before” sets up an incongruity for me when the poem begins “And then…” but the more I read it the more I liked it, because it forced me to give up trying to make linear sense. So curious. So nice.
Here’s a thought:
I don’t think you need the phrase “For a while” or the word “that” in
“For a while I did not think
that I would survive…”
because the ending demonstrates the survival without it being previewed so early in the poem. I love the six lines that follow that part.
A poem so full of images that surprise me. I like it.