Rio Arriba
From 2021
Go back to each place
you vacationed with a lover
afterward
when you are alone again
Linger at the sites
you did not stop to see
Peruse the local wares but
Beware the ristras’ heat
Love the red, the fire of them,
that people’s hands picked each one and put them on a string
Pray at the Chimayo wicks burned low or
wet by old tears from bent and desperate heads
Hike too far without enough water
until you cannot breathe
watch what the body does
knowing there is no one else
Go to bed with the winter sun and get up with it too
Throw your puffer on
(over nothing)
to walk the dog in 20 degree air
Look up at unimaginable stars,
As you wonder if he knew what a meridian was
How the rising, the setting make the light move all night
all night
Not a lot of people know how to be silent and feel a sky like that
The opposite of loneliness is
How strange to have loved
and wish for no one
