The Paddock Review

Behind us like the winter

 

“Be in advance of all parting, as though it were

behind you like the winter that is just going.”

            –Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, 2.13

 

Winter is behind us now, forever.

We have burned ice out of the heart of God

the way incense consumes the oxygen 

inside sacred space, inviting visions

 

to arise where air wavers, where solid ground

gives way to eternal pixelations.

And who can breathe inside that kind of fire?

Not us. No, we are long gone from ourselves,

 

looking backward like bees flown from the hive

to see our own image in every cell,

marveling at the mountain of our wealth,

rubbing our hands around digital hearths,

remarking that it’s got hotter than hell,

waiting patiently in the self-check-out line.

…

This poem is from the book Love in a Time of Climate Change by Cindy Ellen Hill (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/love-in-a-time-of-climate-change-by-cindy-ellen-hill/