by Julia Koets
On Distance
after Jericho Brown
A poem is a measure of the sky
in the distance. A column of rain
in the distance. A column of rain
reminds me of a poet I once loved.
To remember this woman is to love
the seventeen bridges across one river.
The bridges I walked to cross that river
for a month one summer. She took a Czech
language course and learned how to say mouth in Czech.
How the word for it's raining sounds like pushing
in English. One evening the rain pushed
against the tall dormitory where we lived
for just a month. I think of where we lived.
A poem is a measure of the sky.
Julia Koets is the author of The Rib Joint: A Memoir in Essays, a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, PINE, and Hold Like Owls. She earned her MFA at the University of South Carolina and her PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Cincinnati. She is an assistant professor of creative nonfiction at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Visit her website: juliakoets.com.