calmly (poem)
calmly
rise, this is the answer
tell yourself I’m better, I’m free
Free to go, yes? Yes, one white-clad figure
addresses, the others ignore
yes, through those double doors
keep walking, painless arches flattening
back straightening
Please. I want, you say, finding the way
cordoned, by strange gryphons
To go home.
Why? So promptingly the question
from the winged door-warden comes
you are no longer sure you belong
you have no picture of it, a house
watching the street traffic calmly carry on
you will work at this new job through eternity
rescue the molecules to assemble the ordained
Eurypterus. This monster-scorpion won’t sting
He is larger than the souls of men and finds in them
playthings
Not your concern, but the claw of anchoring earth beseeches
the clay shapes losing names before eyes still
as missing friends…no, worse
I had children I made human beings
October
October
answer
(2020, Stephanie Foster)