I Want to Thank the Wind Blows

Sound of the rain so I know

there's constraint

sound of the train

so I know commerce

has not come to a standstill

now they raise the barrier

now they set it back in place

What coats the bottom

of the surface of the sound

when the swifts come in

when the clerks come home

who will bathe the children

who will bake the bread

when the luff is tight

when the mainsheet

starts the boat underway

whatever you do don't

let the tongue slip

from its moorings

what's that song?

love lift us up where we belong

I ate the pill

and the pill was real

Copyright Credit: Alli Warren, "I Want to Thank the Wind Blows" from I Love It Though. Copyright © 2017 by Alli Warren. Reprinted by permission of Nightboat Books.