love

Can I Call You Back to Who You Are?

Artwork by Nora Jesenski

Inside me there are bookshelves filled with your novels,

the chapters and volumes and universes that you

gave to me to hold, your words spilling from the pages.

If I give you all your stories back, recite them line by line,

if I build a bridge of wine and cigarettes and ink

could I call you back to who you are?

If I shred the pages, fling them

in the air and scream your name

the wind could carry them to you,

or it could spin them

slowly to the ground

because it knows

the only thing

you’ll see in

them is

blank

white

space.

—

Poem by Katie Swindler

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