Click on the white “play arrow” in the video to hear the author read this poem, the text of which is presented below.
I have been hunting a magic rabbit
It was already in my hands
before I began
I called a songbird
to my wrist
it arrived
as a shadow
of a dream
A silver pocket watch
opened its mouth
inside my chest
teeth of time
biting nothing
The second hand
wanders off
There is a pocket
in my jacket
that leads somewhere else
I place things in it
and they
arrive earlier
The watch does not count
it listens
for spells
The first
a smile
still warm
from a woman
who sold me radishes
their roots twitching
in the paper
I ate one
and forgot my name
The second spell
never finished forming
it circled me
like a sentence
missing its subject
What you love
does not stay
It learns distance
before you do
Now
a small animal
with no beginning
breathes
and each time I reach
I arrive again
too late
too early
saying the wrong thing
holding it
for the last time
its softness in my hand
feels like loss
Knowing
what you love
you must set free
Because
I don’t need to ask my watch
I know this time
A silver case
is warmed
by knowing
Who I am
What I am for
and remembering my name
I am the love that stays
