(11/30)

Excerpt from “Wisteria” from Kimiko Hahn’s The Unbearable Heart

Speech is always a problem, learning
goodbye means bye, bye
something-something-alligator–defying the verb to be
A wave. A disappearance: the latch, the back
of father’s pea jacket, the car engine.
Leaving for the university.
But even as a crisis of articulation
there were words when a car broadsided mother’s car
and killed her instantly ten months ago
Even as the noise of weeping. Even
as sympathy notes express:
there are no words
what can one say
if there were words
because there are always words.