IN THE END
it is
not
about
endurance,
but
return.
The self,
each
morning,
rising
from its
own
failure.
The
mind
winging
back,
again
and
again,
to the
ache,
the site
of
loss.
What
is
flight,
if
not a
promise
to
return?
What is
memory
if
not
the mind’s
best
attempt
at
flight?
So
let
the
field
bloom,
and
the
house
ring
with
echoes,
and
the
heart
remember,
and
remember,
and
remember.
PATTY PAINE is the author of Grief & Other Animals, The Sounding Machine, and three chapbooks. Her writing and visual work have appeared in Blackbird, Adroit, Gulf Stream, The Denver Quarterly, Analog Forever, Lomography, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and other publications. She is the founding editor of Diode Poetry Journal, and Diode Editions.
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