A List of Important Failures II

A List of Important Failures Day Two:

First Husband.

“Reflection,”

we call the mountain in the lake,

whose existence resides in neither stone nor water.
                                                Jane Hirshfield
                                                "Articulation: An Assay"

There are so many once the trunk is open they creep up,

escaping snails, an ooze like yesterdays of unwashed

sex.  But this: our first

trimester fetus is nothing
but a tremored torque,

a grabbed wrist and when, oh my sweet 
sweet nothing when

the ballast tipped it simply flowed

out, red rivulet of night

breath.  I never told him, first

husband.  And now he’s as gone as wee

baby leaving me with a split raft

pole and a bundle.  I tied each to each

and walked…