(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida)
Loss
after Ted Kooser’s “After Years”
That Eve, I saw you with him,
& the yellowing leaves
slowly dropping off
the trees.
From here,
the glow of the dying sun
dims & dims behind the clouds.
And the cat,
the bleeding black cat
by the gutters—
closing her eyes to eternity.
Her sad meows
cuts through the air.
Gloom sits in my heart
like a tombstone.
But there the glamour
of your orange skin, untouchable,
sparkling
as the gold of a chalice.
I watch, afraid
to speak,
only looking—
while I lose you,
my love, to another man.
