In the drawing
of a cell straining
laterally to split
there’s no sense
that it hurts, but
why wouldn’t it.
It must be as
hard to double
as half die. In
which event
an organism’s
asked to reabsorb
a half gone black,
back out of systems
going blank. With
half its sufferance
denied, put out
the burning tent
and stay inside.
—Kay Ryan
Kay Ryan’s new book of poems, Erratic Facts, will be out from Grove Press in October.
