by Susan diRende
Time Capsule: The Poem
I want the poem to hold everything the way my body holds
the whole and holy of me. The way the body holds both
bile duct and silver snaps of synapse. The way the brain holds both
reptile and god-glow, both fight or flight and dreams
of flying.
I want the poem to hold the way my mind holds
my hand on the wheel and the war
on the radio and the distance
between bombs and borders. Bodies and
ash. I want this poem to hold the dead.
Both mine and ours. And the future
that is tomorrow and the tomorrow
we won’t live to see. I want this poem to hold the way one moment holds
both the sleeping beloved and the trees outside as they ring
a new year, in which another language disappears. Rain on a roof or
something softer. The way all hard things soften in death into what
surrounds them. The way our bodies soften
into each other.
The way love holds both time and no other clock
but the soft soft soft of rain.
The way the clock chimes now
and now holds both here, a body burning with desire, and there,
a forest on fire. And above us, all the stars.
And within us all, the stars. I want this poem to hold space
and to hold a space
for you to fill
after it fails.
Erin Rodoni is the author of two poetry collections: Body, in Good Light and A Landscape for Loss. Her third collection, And if the Woods Carry You, won the 2020 Southern Indiana Review Michael Waters Poetry Prize and is forthcoming in fall 2021. Her poems have recently appeared in EcoTheo, Fairy Tale Review, The Shore, SWWIM, and Muzzle Magazine. Her honors include the Montreal International Poetry Prize, the Ninth Letter Literary Award, and inclusion in Best New Poets. She teaches at the Writing Salon in San Francisco.
Author/artist Susan diRende travels the world with no fixed abode. She has won awards for her writing including the 2017 Special Citation for Excellence by the Philip K Dick Awards. Her artwork has had exhibitions in New Zealand, Belgium, Mexico, and the US. Most recently, she has had writing and artwork published in The Dewdrop, the Pine Hills Review, and The Gaze Journal.