In the Dark Room of Too Little Time
for L. and J.
There is, of course, nothing new to say about love.
But let this attempt and failure be an act of love
given the way you will give morning coffee to one another,
which will inevitably go cold either because bed is more enticing,
or there is a fight to be had about dishes, and both are acts of love.
Winter will stretch too long, and spring will be soggy with rain,
and even summer will burn itself out as ash settles on the windowsills
in August, but your love will pour you whiskey and deliver it
with a whispered, I don’t understand you. It will be the most tender thing
you’ve ever heard, and still you will think, How can I live with you
standing there always? But like your love’s shadow cast over you,
the answer will settle in again, How could I not? You will always
say the wrong thing. Let it be an offering.
Let the light fall in stripes across the bed, let the bottle collect
dust for one day, let the cheap candles burn, let the forks be
mismatched and bent, let the wind pick up, let the dark settle.
I take it back—dust off the bottle, pour a glass of gold
and raise it to the nothing and the everything and the who knows.
Ask it all again. Let the answers come
like a sudden, heavy summer rain, even if the blooms bend
low, the petals scatter, and you are left drenched and wild
in the front door, the grocery bags broken and the windows open.
My God, you will think, if there is love to be had
it is here in the kitchen of too much, at the table of too many,
down the hall of too narrow, in the dark room of too little time.
My God, it is too much and not enough. Every day.
Meghan McClure is the author of the chapbook Portrait of a Body in Wreckages (Newfound Press, 2017) and co-author of A Single Throat Opens (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Tupelo Quarterly, American Literary Review, Pithead Chapel, American Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. She lives in California.
Currently Reading:
Ayşegül Savaş, Danusha Laméris, & Elif Shafak
For More About the Author: www.meghantmcclure.com