the girl i left behind me

Meghan Kemp-Gee

after Eastman Johnson

I think I will never be satisfied. I have to think up
names for the three different kinds
of wind that lift her hair and coat and part
the sky behind her face but don’t blow her wide-brimmed hat
away. She’s been reading recently, studying the classics,
and I will never be satisfied and she knows it, I think.
She knows all about it, knows what I mean
when I say I’ve left a girl behind, knows all three winds’
three names. But never mind. It’s cold outside
and she invites me in somewhere for a cup of good tea,
an earl grey that tastes to me like it knows
where the bodies are buried. (They’re buried under the feet
of girls about whom all I can say is that their names
and faces break the drifting right out of the sky.)

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Meghan Kemp-Gee lives somewhere between Vancouver BC and Fredericton NB. She writes poetry, comics, and scripts of all kinds. Her poetry has appeared in publications including PRISM, Copper Nickel, Altadena Poetry Review, and Train. She teaches composition and co-created Contested Strip, the world’s best comic about ultimate frisbee. You can find her on Twitter @MadMollGreen.

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