Driving Down Old Cutler Road
for Guillermo
by Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello
Banyans arch across the road,
all braided with orchids and light,
asphalt ragged with roots
so that we have to slow down and take
in more than we otherwise might.
This is your favorite road. You said this
once, stitching hours into the highways
between us, and I remember us drawn up
and down the eastern coast, each long-held
breath hemming in our frayed days.
Now, as I drive alone, these roots
seem to unspool into garlands of stars,
far-flung miles gathered back into the arms
of a man who, for all your driving, can have
a favorite road, and at the end of it, wait for me.Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello is the author of the poetry collection Hour of the Ox (University of Pittsburgh, 2016), which won the 2015 AWP Donald Hall Prize and a 2016 Florida Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2017 Milt Kessler Award. She has received poetry fellowships from Kundiman, the Knight Foundation, and the American Literary Translators Association, among others. Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, Best Small Fictions, The New York Times, and more. She serves as the poetry editor for Hyphen Magazine and as a program coordinator for the Miami Book Fair. For more, visit www.marcicalabretta.com
