Yes, it is true
Inspired by Doris Lessing’s The Summer Before the Dark
that as the woman stood in her kitchen
tossing roasted nuts in twos into her mouth
chewing, tasting, hungry for meat
she regarded the treetops in the neighbour’s
yard and discovered that part of her was there
hovering a few inches above a ground she
couldn’t see, feeling differently alive
touching, somehow, the soft edge of a
remarkable future… the problem (?)
was that touching down proved she
at least in this flittering separation
singular, alone, and frighteningly or
extravagantly or wildly was (is?)
ready
yes, it is true that in that moment
of realization, she finished chewing
swallowed. swallowed it all. the
meaty meal of the voluptuous Glimpse
such that the smile that wrinkled the
skin beside her eyes vanished into
a tidy oblivion, folded and tucked
among other moments like this one
that were increasingly arriving as
she stood alone in places, and
the future called like a churchbell
VANESSA SHIELDS 