American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin - Terrance Hayes
The only single women widows now or brides
Half married to the breeze. We lie to stay together.
We lie to make do. We lie to break the truth
Apart. We lie to shake fruit from the trees.
My mother favored the worker bee, her love buzzed
With stickiness & sting. I’m here about the widow
Afraid of butterflies. A widow knows ruin may be
As comprehensive as “rain,” a kind of cover
For the dirt about the dead. Nature does not destroy
Only change. Get down on your knees & pray
And get up quickly & live to celebrate that.
Falling is the first & most important skill in many things.
How to fall without breaking as well as how to break.
Tell me what you pray when you are broken or break.
Published in the print edition of the July 1, 2019, issue of The New Yorker.
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