Lewisburg by Maya C. Popa
Longing, we say, because desire is full / of endless distances.
-Robert Hass
Driving down a highway in August, saving for later
the right word for now, desire whittled me
a tool I'd never seen before
but knew how to use almost immediately.
Tornadoes yellowed, revised the river & bovine lands
for sale beside it.
Longing, I said, pushing distance
through a cage-
it's why the picture city must be snowed in.
The other words I couldn't think of at the time,
like many things that leave before
you've found a name for them.