Grace Curtis |
Back to Issue 10 |
for Gwyneth
All the words had been spoken, the ta-ta-ings, adios-ings, Princesse, au revoir, echoes of good-day, madam, good- noon, good sir, good child, good-past-noon, all the words we use to mark the crush of ebb. In his farewell, Washington said, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future, wishing for more than a simple ciao as he departed, as in parting-- at a party, an expatriation, excision--is such sweet sorrow. In Miyazaki's farewell film, "The Wind Rises," Caproni insists Airplanes are beautiful dreams, a dream vacation abroad, a bon voyage, contraction, interjection. An Olde Englishman would bend it God be w'ye assuming the sky-blue span of forever, an admonition to his God, and how the heart can break at that moment, so long; so long you have held my heart in your hands, the parting, release, contract, a fist of constriction. How Washington anguished over adieu. Nothing is simple, no uncoupling unconscious, no valedictory address on the stoop, tear-less, no point on the spectrum, good-less. godbwye, godbwye, my love, I would I were thy bird. |
Grace Curtis’ book, The Shape of a Box, was published in 2014 by Dos Madres Press. Her chapbook, The Surly Bonds of Earth, was selected by Stephen Dunn as the 2010 winner of the Lettre Sauvage chapbook contest, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart award. Her prose and poetry has been or is forthcoming in such journals as Sou’wester, The Baltimore Review, Waccamaw Literary Journal, Blood Orange Review, and others.
www.gracecurtispoetry.com |
