let's say
Maureen Clark
there is not a happy ending here
the man stuck upside down in the cave will die
what then? you will keep living more empty days
you’ve begged before and no one came to save you
there was no stretcher hauled out with a body
breathing but broken mud and dirt worth the life
how do you walk away without the rescue
live the rest of your life with the always lost
In trying to find new ways to deal with difficult subjects, I wrote in the Italian Rispetto form: eight lines, eleven syllables in each line. I like the way a very complex idea fits into this container, like a bento box. "let's say" was published in Sonic Boom.
MAUREEN CLARK is the author of the poetry collection This Insatiable August (Signature Books, 2024) and has received two nominations for the Pushcart Prize. Her memoir, Falling into Bountiful: Confessions of a Once Upon a Time Mormon, is forthcoming from Hypatia Press.