Anniversary — A Cento

Anniversary — A Cento

1

When he tells you he needs you like he needs air,
everything after aches.

You are the exhale
gathering somewhere     just out of view

and, for a moment,
you are not here.


2

You let every thing go:
the strife and the fire—

two mourning doves calling the sun out of darkness.


3

So many times I imagined myself
like that:

immune again, as we would never be,

like two negative numbers multiplied by rain
that does not choose the direction it travels.


Maureen E. Doallas, October 19, 2015
______________________

Sources

Line 1 ~ Shandel Beers, "Water, Water Everywhere"

Line 2 ~ Patty Paine, "Notes on Mirrors, Already Lost"

Line 3 ~ Donna Vorreyer, "Why I Love You Most When I'm Upset"

Line 4 ~ Jake Adam York, "A Murmuration of Starlings"

Line 5 ~ James Wright, "Jerome in Solitude"

Line 6 ~ Jake Adam York, "Letter Already Broadcast Into Space"

Line 7 ~ Nancy Willard, "The Mirror"

Line 8 ~ Hannah Sanghee Park, "Dear Sir—"

Line 9  ~ Nancy Willard, "Tree House"

Line 10 ~ Claudia Emerson, "The Practice Cage"

Line 11 ~ Jane Hirshfield,"Twelve Pebbles (Still Life)"

Line 12 ~ Claudia Emerson, "Furnace"

Line 13 ~ Jane Hirshfield, "Like Two Negative Numbers Multiplied by Rain"

Line 14 ~ Jane Hirshfield, "Like Two Negative Numbers Multiplied by Rain"

Punctuation and capitalization are my own.