Adam Hughes riffs on the poet Galway Kinnell to create his own quietly ecstatic love poem.
—
With Apologies
After making love we are footsteps,
the kind that lead off into snow, the ridges
of our shoes prying up lines of powder
that stick to our boots and are carried
into the house to melt on the tile floor.
Of course, everything turns to water.
We stay still in the inkwell of our room,
touching along the length of our yesterdays,
fingers tracing the tomorrows of our
hip bones. The dawn is six and a half hours away
and two months overdue. You walk so much
faster than me, but your prints are closer
together. Together we are falling
asleep, scuffing our feet in dreams
that remind us of reality and all its varied
fictions. Tonight we burned our books
on the bonfire of forgiveness and we’ll wake tomorrow
covered in ash and wind drops.
This house burns. Our footprints remain. We can’t always
tell which direction they’re going.
But still we walk, our backs enflamed with molting feathers—
angels or egrets.
***
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“With Apologies” by Adam Hughes: A wonderful poem that sees into, explores, illuminates, and situates being human. (And a stunning dismount!)