Peter Grandbois

WHO WILL BE RETURNING AND WHO HAS BEEN LOST

The least of gestures knows sky 
is unreadable the way 
the circling turkey vultures 
take the shape of death 
though they are only killing time.

I fly with them, winging 
at the faint figure of what I was
while in the distance a rabbit
ghosts across the unwelcome field
with the slow tick of seasons.

One day you, too, will be alone
with no wind to lift you except
the slowly gathering upswell 
of birds soundlessly carrying 
us closer to all we are.

Tell me again why what settles  
here stays when it could be riding 
wave after wave of ravening light.

Peter Grandbois is the author of eleven books, the most recent of which is the poetry collection The Three-Legged World, published as Triptych with books by James McCorkle and Robert Miltner (Etruscan 2020). His work has appeared in over one hundred journals, including The Kenyon Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Prairie Schooner. His plays have been performed in St. Louis, Columbus, Los Angeles, and New York. He is poetry editor at Boulevard magazine and teaches at Denison University in Ohio. You can find him at www.petergrandbois.com.