The Sealed Knot
The shame of it — not being thought a failure,
yet reeking of the reach you haven’t had.
There is, there shall, there’s going to be, a future
though English only has two tenses. Sad!
For form’s sake, you were forced there into diction
right of today — and, today, of the right,
whose ‘great again’ grates as it flails for traction.
You quit years ago, but still ask for a light.
You’re right, you know: I’m here curating glimmers,
and hoarding dewdrops into afternoon,
and heading into autumn now with summer’s
spade and bucket still unused. Yet soon
I fully mean to find some firm, damp, sand,
and pile it up, and dig a moat outside,
and stick my paper flags upon the mound,
add scallop shells, then watch the failing tide.