A poem that evokes the poignancy of a short-lived illusion.
Previously, we published excerpts from Gerald Jonas’s book in progress, Anthologies, dedicated to his late wife, Barbara. He calls this group of poems and essays Meditation on the Fear and Fact of Death.
Below is a related poem in which Jonas shares a momentary illusion, a ghost of a memory of Barbara… that quickly evaporates.
Jonas is a senior editor at WhoWhatWhy and a writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, as well as other journals large and small.
WhoWhatWhy Introduction written by Milicent Cranor.
***
Stages
Bereft of anger
by the endlessness of loss
the poem weeps words of
salt:
In the tidal to-
and-fro of grief I lose and
find, lose and find you
gone
Waking to the ghost
of your calcitrant body
astride me again
not
Squeezing shut my eyes
rebuking their submission
to the nightlight’s green
dusk
Till-death-do-us-part
Whispering goodbye to love’s
indivisible
vow
After hope’s eclipse
and paralysis of will
a mute resolve to
be
