The Given Life
I didn’t want this grief.
I’d had enough of that,
Most of it of my own making.
I was ripe for joy.
You brought it to me in armfuls
I tried to take from you, laughing
At how I couldn’t hold it all.
Do you remember
That dumpling place in Iowa City
Where we made a list of baby names?
Old names, names from the Old
Testament, our future
Hearkening back to the past.
I could see them
As if they were already alive.
It was only a matter of making them,
As if to make a life
Is that simple.
We didn’t even know each other,
And never would.
You’re gone
But I still seem to see them,
Staring at me
From the future we never reached,
Waiting
To be given a life.