A ___ is a World, a Windstorm, a Love Letter Lost in the Breeze
Dear Seizure of Church Bells, there were eleven hours left till the end of Memorialist Day. I was kneeling again, ambushed by my own ardor. I was asking this She to be my garden of grief. And She said, Guess! Guess! Oh God, Guess!But the Marginalia was already drawing near, their pre-colonial boots shining funeral-black in the May-ish sun. We hurried down presidential streets, past soothsayers and witnesses, to the courthouse steps. We donned our simple smiles even as the echo of boots erupted around us. Only the crossing guard could stop them now, her one palm held high. As quick-quick as he could, the priest-like astronomer knocked on the door of his heaven. And with time for only one question, one answer, one rapture, we surrendered our Yes.
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Fritz Ward's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Arts and Commentary, Agni Online, Swink, Salt Hill, Blackbird, Diagram, Small Spiral Notebook, and The Journal. No Tell Motel first published this poem in January 2009. Fritz wrote, "[this poem] was a result of reading too much science fiction and fantasy this summer while contemplating how to propose to the woman I loved—but I'm not quite willing to completely undress for you just yet. What fun is a one-sided seduction? Besides, I'm more interested in hearing your reactionary musings than listening to myself talk."
