Not Keeping Now


by Gale Marie Thompson

What to extend, then
dream house, prairie fire
This is our position
What more can we cull
as we work on nothing else
but our bodies
as we become caught
and quieted down
It is never easy to locate
that which is always traveling
Everything is potentially dangerous
sailing to the windward
of something else
weathering another ship
Anything to feel
barrel-vaulted with you
I follow you now
imagining that what we form
is a crowd
All that I wanted
to extend for you
too ephemeral
to imagine
the next few years
will be rings and rings