A Constant
- A Constant
It accumulates gradually and providesnothing except a covering. Despiteyour constant labor on it, the wetting,the drying, the smoothing, it will notredeem you. You are merelymaintaining something requiredbut not strongly desired. In the windit flaps and folds on itself, sometimeslands on sand, stiffens. Inevitably,it spins sopping, then circles hotlyand slowly fades and softens untilit disintegrates. The only pleasureyou can take in it, is the way it rubsagainst you, maybe the way the windstirs it against you, or maybethe way it gives when you give.Never will it hold you, neverembrace, just enfold you. [End Page 161]
Cammy Thomas has published two collections of poems with Four Way Books: Inscriptions (2014) and Cathedral of Wish, which received the 2006 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her poems have recently appeared in The Maine Review, The Missouri Review, Salamander, WomenArts Quarterly, and elsewhere. A fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation helped her complete Inscriptions. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.
