Tuesday poem #639 : Lauren Peat : long division

 

 

when the hour is perfect
& your body hums under it 

sunlight’s shimmer
like the oboe’s clear A— 

must you sidestep
must you spill the hour out 

wanting to talk about
E & how she 

belonged to the present so
completely— 

to the oriole’s terse arrow &
to you, who then 

walked with a sadness alongside—

somehow she knew
to love you & the hour 

without halving herself
without urging each to stay

 

 

 

Lauren Peat’s debut poetry chapbook, Future Tense, was published by Baseline Press in 2024. Her poems, essays, and translations have appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, Only Poems, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, and World Literature Today, among other places. Her writing is also featured in the repertoire of acclaimed vocal ensembles across North America. Translation Editor for the online poetry magazine Volume, she lives in Vancouver, Canada.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan