Tuesday poem #224 : Carrie Etter : Future Interlude

Talk about the singing. In caves, where echoes amplify the wisps of sound.

Talk about the loss. Do you mean in the open, where loss is presence?

Talk about the green. Sometimes we think we see it, only to look more closely.

Talk about the foolhardy. We shake by the shoulders those who don’t hang their heads.

Talk about tomorrow. Please no.

Talk about yesterday. I’ll only weep.

And today? I lick the dirt to spike my thirst.

American expat Carrie Etter has lived in England since 2001 and has published three collections: The Tethers (Seren, 2009), winner of the London New Poetry Award; Divining for Starters (Shearsman, 2011); and Imagined Sons (Seren, 2014), shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry by The Poetry Society. She also edited Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010) and Linda Lamus's posthumous collection, A Crater the Size of Calcutta (Mulfran, 2015).

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan