Merely by Karen Carcia

Merely

1. September was.
2. Though maybe I’m just looking
3. and I want so much back—
4. the pine moves. Dark stitches
5. interlocking. Time passes thusly:
6. the legible body,
7. the verb that doesn’t end
8. in –ed. Remember the bees,
9. their tall, gray houses,
10. like splinters. Even this.
11. Even the edge of.
12. *
13. Ask: who looks for you?
14. who looks for you? then
15. everything you think of
16. will come back to you.
17. A barn. A backyard
18. that extends into field.
19. Into field. Into forest.
20. *
21. Time passes merely. The
22. pine moves.
23. I try to remember the verb that doesn’t.
24. I try so much back.
25. The legible body.
26. The bees. September, and
27. who looks for you?