Like standing
on splitting ice
one foot on one
one on the
other piece.
Distressed like
the family of man
at the divorce
of the plates:
some cast into
a suddenly new
world as though
having sinned;
those kept behind
trapped and
bereft. But in
a person, one
foot will lift
and the split
resolve. So
why do the
self-saved
feel half left?
—Kay Ryan
Kay Ryan’s latest book is The Best of It: New and Selected Poems. She recently completed two terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States.
