Preservation for the Heartbroken
- Preservation for the Heartbroken
The stones I placed across the creek for usto bridge are scattered now. All whohave crossed this stretch and looked at shed and reapof swell know me as a ghost, the shoal that tongues.
The ripples spread. You spread, my love, the darterwho took a chance and pipped. I want your gills,the way you navigate the air and water.The why is want; the need we breathe is now.
At fifty, the need is want and want is need.I can't abide the dictionary's what-we-will a moment longer, what we shouldbecause of time, what scales we shimmer, leave behind. [End Page 7]
Adam Vines is the author of five collections of poetry—most recently Lures (LSU Press, 2022) and Out of Speech (LSU Press, 2018). He is an associate professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Editor in Chief of Birmingham Poetry Review.
