Cass Donish
—
Queer Time
We’re living in dead time
so many times
before I lost her
I almost lost her
though her skin
was warm as wine
in a sunned jar
and she talked about it
how close she’d gotten
to that threshold
that world in which
she was already
wind in fig tree
shocked light
cypress tilt hawk light
We’re living in dead time
though I held her
sunned shoulders
in my two hands
the thought was here
when she was alive
that she could have
already
*
Dead time. Borrowed time. A window narrowing. A tipping point. I felt like I was watching
her die. It was hardhard for others to seesee even whenwhen we tried to say
everything.
I cherish the years we had after the first scares.
*
my heart is cool now
made of discolored clay
images flow backward
pounding under pressure
my knees are shunned
blue oranges
washing into the sea
We’re living in dead time
as common as
uncommon
for our kind
Cass Donish's two previous collections are The Year of the Femme(University of Iowa Press, 2019), chosen by Brenda Shaughnessy as winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize and shortlisted for the Julie Suk Award; and Beautyberry (Slope Editions, 2018). Their nonfiction chapbook, On the Mezzanine (Gold Line Press, 2019), was chosen by Maggie Nelson as winner of the Gold Line Press Chapbook Competition.
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