Ode to Mitski 

By WILLIAM FARGASON

while driving today     to pick up groceries 
I drive over     the bridge where it would be 
so easy to drive     right off     the water  
a blanket to lay over     my head     its fevers  

I do want to live     most days     but today  
I don’t     I could     let go of the wheel  
and close my eyes     but Mitski in my speakers 
pulls me back to earth     she keeps my hands  

on the wheel when I want     and I so often 
want to die     Mitski I cannot speak
to you     like you speak to me     a thousand lilies 
rise up from the field     on the other side  

of the bridge     I will fix my eyes to the field  
with your help     I will make it across 

 

 

[Purchase Issue 29 here.]

William Fargason is the author of Velvet and Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara. His poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, and elsewhere. He lives with himself in College Park, Maryland. 

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Ode to Mitski 

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