What Remains of November

Lucy Wainger | 2015 WT AWARDS FINALIST

 

A is flying home tomorrow and B is helping him pack.

           

          C doesn’t know why the moon is orange tonight                                              

                                    or where all the rivers went.

 

D is lacing up his boots—flight always wins out over fight.
           

              E was pregnant last week
                         

                             and F is crying and asking if you’d like fries                            

with that, wouldn’t know radioactive if his eyelashes fell off.

                                                    

                                                  We’re all fighting the same war

                                                           

                                    over a telegram that got lost at sea.                        

 

You grow up and forget, but when you’re sixteen                                                      

          you know that the whole world is just the reflection                                                    

             of a mirror in                         another mirror                                                                           

                           on the opposite side of the room.

 

G wants you to know that she’s here for you,
             

              that she won’t let you down, not even if you ask her to.

 

H is a pacifist. What reason has he to fight?
                                     

                                    H is hoarding every radio he can find.

 

At night he toils over broken parts
           

             and antennae, turns knobs/twists screws, rakes                                                            

                         the static for a tune—breaks only to catch                            

 

his breath and rasp into his own microphone, are you there?                    

 

Are you there?                   Are you there?

 

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