Prognostication
On the day you came home
I am hustling one place
To another, sweating on
The air that won’t lift and won’t breathe,
And there are three blue jays
In the oak up third, younger,
I think, and quieter, chuffing
Softly and letting me near,
Fanning their tails to match
The blistered sky, looking askance
As I perambulate by. I hope
They’ll stay and believe
In the love and the need in me.
Yet the blue in them wasn’t heaven’s
Grace, but the blue of your eye,
The blue of deep space,
And without a shout, without
A race, they spread the day and hurtled away,
With nothing of cruelty
And nothing of hate.
Some of Jared Pearce’s poems have recently been or will soon be shared in Marathon, A Quiet Courage, DIAGRAM, Inlandia, and Poetic Diversity. His first collection is due from Aubade Press in 2018. He lives in Iowa.
Randomly Accessed Poetics 