STRUCTURAL UNCERTAINTY
You wrote the promissory note a year ago
That he would not be improved on.
Perhaps the day could magically be re-opened
To a place where it would not collapse entirely.
Perhaps your heart could be treated with robustness
And lemon drops before you fall asleep.
Not that you want an extension.
It’s time for his flash of light in the night.
Author’s Bio
Mary Gilliland, whose poetry has been anthologized in Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms In Our Hands, and Strange Histories: A Bizarre Collaboration, has taught at Cornell in Ithaca and in Doha. Her award-winning chapbook, The Ruined Walled Castle Garden, will be out in 2020 from Bright Hill Press.