Dear Life

I can’t undo all I have done unto myself,

what I have let an appetite for love do to me.

I have wanted all the world, its beauties

and its injuries; some days,

I think that is punishment enough.

Often, I received more than I’d asked,

which is how this works—you fish in open water

ready to be wounded on what you reel in.

Throwing it back was a nightmare.

Throwing it back and seeing my own face

as it disappeared into the dark water.

Catching my tongue suddenly on metal,

spitting the hook into my open palm.

Dear life: I feel that hook today most keenly.

Would you loosen the line—you’ll listen

if   I ask you,

if   you are the sort of  life I think you are.

Maya C. Popa

Maya C. Popa is the author of Wound is the Origin of Wonder (W.W. Norton, 2022) and American Faith (Sarabande Books, 2019). She is the poetry reviews editor at Publishers Weekly and teaches poetry at New York University.

Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/