I Want to Love the World

I want to love the world but I’m tired of it

walking by me on the street and not

even waving. And making so much noise

 

late at night. It’s a parked car with closed-

tight windows and the radio thumping.

It’s been outside my house for weeks. How

 

can you think of anything else with all

that artillery? I want to love the way early

afternoon looks on the stone floor of my

 

office, how pollen’s dust on my windows

casts a golden shadow. But that only

reminds me it’s getting later and now I

 

can’t tell you what I was trying to say. The

world has interrupted me. And why should

it care about that? I want to love the world

 

but I’m tired. In Kyiv, the coroner burns

church incense. To each face he uncovers,

he says, How? How did this happen to you?

 

Christine Potter, “Poets Respond” rattle.com April 24, 2022

 

Christine Potter: “The war in Ukraine continues to haunt me. I can’t remember a time in my life when I have felt quite so oppressed by the sheer hell people can unleash upon one another. Except for writing poetry, I feel helpless against it.”