- Mayday
If I were a dancer
If I were doing my best
I would call you
incroyable
a cherishment
a forfeiture of this world
If this were a wavering day
a sudden surprise
of a day
I would be glad of it
This room too close to me
an empty birdhouse
swaying outside
If I were sharp-edged
a swing-set
in the middle of this poem
If I were an object
of a lost and more perfect order
I would like tomorrow
to be over with
only to know
that a day can go on [End Page 158]
Gale Marie Thompson is the author of Soldier On (Tupelo Press) and the chapbooks Expeditions to the Polar Seas (Sixth Finch) and If You’re a Bear, I’m a Bear (H_NGM_N). Her work can be found in Best New Poets 2012, Volt, Denver Quarterly, and Sink Review. She edits Jellyfish Magazine and lives, teaches, and writes in Athens, Georgia.