To think of you
is to have the sense that I will never be seen
by anyone who has language
again.
————Truth, exceed fact: touch everything
in the house. If I can be faithful to it,
the losses will seem inevitable. And down they do come,
only a little faster
now.
————(O, but my besetting demons!
A soft scent that comes off the trees
lining the long road; to rise from the table hungry.)

You were such good company. I am alive
and well. Please come right over,
come right back.

 

 

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Sandra Lim is the author, most recently, of The Curious Thing (Norton). She is a recipient of the 2023 Jackson Poetry Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship.