A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Laurel Brett
Rendezvous
If I should meet you
at the summit of a snowy mountain
let us not burden each other
with our stories of how the world
has wronged us—our genes,
our histories, our disappointments.
Instead, let us each pull up a chair
and say our names.
Let one of us point
to a peregrine falcon,
wings extended in an ecstasy
of flight, without remarking
on its predatory nature. Let
the other admire
the way the white around us
dazzles without remembering
the melting on Mt. Fuji.
It’s true—at the foot of this peak
the very fabric of the earth unravels.
We each know this. No need
to speak. For this moment—
a mountain, snow, a falcon and us.
Laurel Brett is the author of the novel The Schrödinger Girl (Kaylie Jones Books, 2020) and the literary critical study Disquiet on the Western Front: World War II and Postmodern Fiction (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016). Born in New York City, she lives in Port Jefferson, NY, and teaches in the English department at Nassau Community College in Garden City.
Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.
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