Poem of the Month

I

The pain is like
The passing of your mother
In one slow leak
Over a lifetime
II

What does it mean to be 32?

To watch the devolution of your
Importance

To have mastered the masks of
Kindness
To attend better than a
Courtesan.
To listen and watch, make yourself
Empty
for a person – to tell yourself
it’s because
you see them come alive
Under a light

But really to do it because
No one has done it for you
And also
To hide
how much you resent that

III

I have hidden in branches
The light of the sun
Never enflamed me

I have watched the earth
Rotate
It’s magnum flecks
Pouring ice and hot bone

And I have considered the seasons
Spilling into each other
A sort of chaos, an uncomposed
Answer

And I have found
it means less
over time
IV

What does it mean to write poetry
when you are no longer 22?

When the grooves of common speech
dwell in you
almost as deep as the grooves of
common thought
and you can’t tell
anymore
just what was so revolutionary

-Nina Alvarez