the sun in wintertime
In a big country, dreams stay with you
Like a lover’s voice fires the mountainside
— In a Big Country by Big Country, 1983
This, I’m afraid, she says,
This actually won’t pass.
No, really, This is meant to hurt
forever. You know
pain’s how you know things
that they were there, and hurt now.
Of course yes, all things go, but not
Not all so far.
And also, you should know
that small that you’ve used here,
it’s not the small you brought
last you came back. It’s the other type.
The kind you said you’re scared of.
No, nothing really passes, and yet still
This, she murmurs
almost to herself, one day
This, too, will have a place.
